Congress will activate another investigation into the 'sewers' of the State with the PP, which will coincide with the pre-campaign of 28-M

The groups have to have their components designated in two weeks

MADRID, 7 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The PSOE and Unidas Podemos have decided to move to activate the constitution of the new investigation commission on the so-called 'sewers' of the State, which the Chamber agreed to create on September 15 and which will be in charge of reopening investigations on matters such as the one known as 'Operation Catalonia' or the 'Kitchen' plot, which were already the subject of previous investigations. It is estimated that the appearances of those involved will take place in the middle of the pre-campaign of the municipal and regional elections.

Specifically, according to what parliamentary sources have informed Europa Press, the Congress Bureau has given until March 21 for the groups to communicate who their representatives will be in this body. This is the previous step for its constitution, which could become effective before the end of the month.

Last week the pro-independence formations submitted a letter to the Congress Table asking that this investigation be activated, a request that has been attended by the two majority groups, which have a majority in the governing body of the Chamber.

At a press conference, the spokesperson for the Socialist Group, Patxi López, justified the decision on the need to "know the whole truth" about a "very serious matter for the democratic system", he pointed directly to the involvement of the leadership of the PP, when it was chaired by Mariano Rajoy, in the "political use of state apparatuses to cover up corruption" and has even mentioned the possible "destruction of evidence".

Esquerra Republicana, EH-Bildu, Junts, PDeCAT, the CUP and the BNG requested that the commission be created now after learning last week that a court in Madrid had opened an investigation into the maneuvers of police groups led by the Ministry of the Interior to discredit to independence.

This cause has its origin in a complaint by the former president of Barça Sandro Rosell against the former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo and various police officers for the crimes of criminal organization, document falsification, false accusation and complaint, embezzlement and illegal detention.

The task of this body will be to review, once again, alleged parapolice plots in the Ministry of the Interior under the mandate of Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz during the first Government of Mariano Rajoy. It is the fourth commission on the PP approved in the Chamber since 2017.

Specifically, what was approved on September 15 was a proposal from the pro-independence formations, agreed with the PSOE, to carry out investigations into what is known as 'Operation Catalonia' and expand those carried out in the previous course on 'Operation Kitchen'. '.

Once the groups designate their representatives in the commission, that is, as of the 21st, this body will be able to be constituted. Thus, the bulk of the appearances of those involved in the investigation would be held in full run-up to the municipal and regional elections on May 28.

The independentistas promoted the commission last June after learning that the Andorran justice system was investigating former President Mariano Rajoy and his former Ministers of Finance and Interior, Cristóbal Montoro and Jorge Fernández Díaz, respectively, for their alleged relationship with the attempts to find out "through illegal" secret banking information of pro-independence political leaders.

But the initiative was not debated in the plenary session of Congress until after the summer and, by then, new audios from former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo had already been released, pointing to the involvement of the former general secretary of the PP and former defense minister, María Dolores de Cospedal, in 'Operation Kitchen' the plot to spy on former party treasurer Luis Bárcenas in search of evidence linking PP charges to corruption cases.

That is why the PSOE presented an amendment to the proposal for a commission of inquiry so that, in addition to what is related to the so-called 'Operation Catalonia', the previous investigation into the 'Kitchen' would be expanded.

Thus, the commission will finally aim to "investigate the actions of the Ministry of the Interior during the Government of the Popular Party in relation to the alleged irregularities that link senior officials and police commanders, as well as their relationship with possible private networks or pressure lobbies, the possible interference in the sovereignty of other countries and the connections of this plot with the so-called 'Operation Catalonia'".

This new commission of investigation will be added to the two previous ones carried out in Congress on the so-called police 'sewers' in the stage of the first Ministry of the Interior of the Rajoy Government.

The first, on the so-called 'Operation Catalonia' to spy on and discredit the Catalan independence movement, took place in 2107 and, already in this legislature, that of the 'Kitchen' was made. In both cases, and despite the vote against the PP, Congress has already sentenced the political leaders of the ministry of those years.

But it is also that between 2017 and 2019 the Lower House already hosted another investigation, this one on the illegal financing of the PP, a body that was launched when Rajoy was still in government because its creation was one of the commitments that Ciudadanos acquired with the PP to support his investiture.

However, this investigation was closed in 2019 after verifying the impossibility of the parliamentary groups reaching an agreement on its conclusions. While Podemos and Ciudadanos tried to have Congress mandated to leave the polls in April of that year to resume the investigation and summon Rajoy, the PSOE and the PP opposed it.

On the contrary, in recent years Congress has vetoed all the investigative commissions requested into the business of King Juan Carlos and has rejected requests to investigate issues such as the management of the coronavirus pandemic, the abuse of minors in custody The Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, the espionage of pro-independence politicians with the Pegasus software or, more recently, the tragedy of the Melilla fence on June 24.