The Table of Congress has reactivated this Tuesday the commission of investigation for the Kitchen plot ―the parapolice operation concocted in the Ministry of the Interior during the government of Mariano Rajoy to spy on former popular treasurer Luis Bárcenas and allegedly steal compromising documents for the PP― as a result of the new revelations of the so-called Operation Catalonia with which the leadership of the Interior supposedly intended to discredit the independence movement as it already did with other formations critical of the PP such as Podemos. The six votes of the PSOE and Unidas Podemos at the Parliament Table have been imposed on the three votes against PP and Vox. “In view of the seriousness of the known information, which affects the very structure and system of the State in a case of political and illegal use of the apparatus and resources of the State to cover up its own corruption, we cannot stand still and for this reason We are going to activate this commission”, explained the socialist spokesman in Congress, Patxi López.
Hundreds of messages from heads of the Interior and police commanders between 2015 and 2019 reveal the ministry’s strategy at the time of the PP to investigate Podemos and pro-independence leaders, most of the time without judicial support. EL PAÍS announced on February 28 the first information about the new WhatsApp messages from the telephone number of Francisco Martínez, former Secretary of State for Security and number two of the Minister of the Interior Jorge Fernández Díaz at that time and who had just joined the cause. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office asks for the two top heads of the Interior with Rajoy and for Eugenio Pino, the top police chief, up to 15 years in prison and 31 years of disqualification for the crimes of cover-up, embezzlement and against privacy in the kitchen case, in which the illegal police operation to spy on the family of the popular ex-treasurer Luis Bárcenas is investigated and to hide evidence of the illegal financing of the party.
Cadena SER also published the exchange of messages between Martínez and the president of the National Court, José Ramón Navarroin which the number two The Interior tried to get him to provide him with information about a case that was secret, he asked him about his personal judicial future, and the president responded with phrases like “I’ll tell you as soon as I know”, “I find out and I’ll tell you”, or asks him ” tranquillity”. The president of the National Court has denied to the radio station having ever given any information to Francisco Martínez and that he limited himself to “delaying” him.
Despite the seriousness and political controversy generated by these According to reports, Congress did not show any interest in setting up the investigative commission. Several government partners, including Unidas Podemos, ERC and the PDeCAT, then lamented that the emphasis was not placed on learning more about these messages. Esquerra’s spokesman, Gabriel Rufián, criticized that the commission had not yet been formed. The green light from the socialists has finally arrived this Tuesday.
Congress has opened a deadline until March 21 for the groups to designate their representatives in the investigation commission. “It should force all of us, independentistas or not, to resume talks so that the commission is set up as soon as possible,” said PDeCAT deputy Sergi Miquel.
The opinion of the commission on the espionage plot against Bárcenas was already put to a vote in February 2022 and it was concluded that Mariano Rajoy was the political person responsible for Operation Kitchen.
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