Camps blames the "national leadership" of the PP for the contract with Gürtel: "We are a centralized party"

He denies any relationship with the members of the plot and assures that he went to the wedding of "El Bigotes" thinking that it was an act of the party

The former president of the Generalitat Valenciana Francisco Camps has blamed this Wednesday the "national leadership" of the Popular Party for contracting with the companies of the 'Gürtel' in the trial that is being followed in the National Court for the alleged irregularities in the award to Orange Market, one of the companies in the plot, of the contract for the Valencian exhibitor of the Fitur 2009 edition.

Camps, who is facing a request for two and a half years in prison by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, has assured that the decision to download the organization of the training events to Gürtel was decided by "the great instance".

"Our party is a centralized party, we are militants of the PP of Spain, we are not a federated party, we are a national party. The one who leads the electoral campaign of the president of the community is the party of Spain. Everything is designed from the national leadership ", he asserted in response to questions from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.

The former regional president has reinforced his words after the Public Ministry showed him a photo of an act in which the then party leader, Mariano Rajoy, would have participated. "No one told me anything about that man," he pointed out, in relation to one of the ringleaders of the plot: Álvaro Pérez, alias 'El Bigotes'.

"Look how Rajoy and I are at a PP act and this gentleman is squatting as he should be. Look how the national PP is. Nobody said anything to me and nobody said anything strange," Camps added.

In this context, Camps has repeated that the winner for the party events was "the national PP of Spain" while clarifying that "he has never" been "concerned who organizes" them or his personal image.

"I have been a militant since 1982. I have put up chairs, I have put up posters... but it never occurs to me to ask who is doing party acts and why they are doing this. The logo and name of the party have been changed and I have not asked why it was done", he argued.

However, Camps has qualified his words in statements to the media after leaving the courthouse. "I have not blamed the national leadership of the PP. I have said that it was the campaign committee that hired. That is an indisputable reality," he assured.

Asked if he fears that his statements could affect his political future, Camps has been blunt: "It cannot affect anything, and it does affect bad luck. Apart from that, the party has said it actively and passively. They hired and stopped hiring hire".

In his statement, the former president wanted to make it clear that it was he who made "the decision" to break with Gürtel. "If he had been afraid or had a personal concern, he would not have made that decision. He would have looked to see if there was a way to solve it and the scope of the problem," he pointed out.

The former president has indicated that "never ever" has he given "an indication" to carry out contracts in his "30 years of public service." "And less for a few stands of Fitur that is like nothing, if you allow me", he has assured himself.

Along these lines, Camps has explained that he decided that the relationship with the companies involved in the plot had to end after the first arrests and searches ordered by the then judge of the National Court Baltasar Garzón. "(I said) if it's Garzón it has to be very fat, it can't be nonsense. I'm not going to play with nonsense like this," he added.

Thus, the former 'popular' leader has denied any type of personal relationship with the leader of Gürtel, Francisco Correa, his 'number two', Pablo Crespo, or with 'El Bigotes'. But, furthermore, from his point of view it is "strange" that none of them tried to meet with him as the head of the PP in the Valencian Community.

"I have realized that there is a leadership pyramid. How is it possible that in this hierarchically constituted pyramid, when I was the president, the boss and deputy boss never contacted me? It is absurd and surreal; it does not make sense. They would have told me that I had had a coffee. We never had any type of personal relationship, nor did we walk down the street, nor did we walk through a garden," he assured.

HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH 'EL BIGOTES'

At this point, the Prosecutor's Office has reproduced the telephone conversation he had with 'El Bigotes' on Christmas Eve 2008 and in which both expressed their affection. According to Camps, it was the general secretary of the Valencian PP who urged him to call Pérez to thank him for organizing an event for the formation.

The former president wanted to emphasize that the same day he had that talk with 'El Bigotes' he managed to get the Government -- chaired by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero -- to grant financing of 2,500 million to the community. "I was exultant (...) after having this feeling, of having achieved something for the Valencian Community", he continued.

Camps, who has said that he is "prepared to listen to that conversation N more times", believes that he has "blown this issue out of proportion". "We are talking about loyalty, not friendship. Loyalty is a political concept, he had a political relationship with me. That is why we are talking about loyalty to the party, to the initials," he added.

In the former president's opinion, it would have been "pejorative to tell" 'El Bigotes', whom he has defined as the "stagehand" of the PP, how "beautiful" he made the stages for the electoral acts of the formation.

Camps has also given explanations of his attendance at the wedding of 'El Bigotes'. If he attended, he has maintained, it is because they told him that he was going to attend a meeting where only "people from the party" were going to be there.

DISCREPANCIES WITH THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

This Wednesday's session was also marked by the attention calls that the president of the court, José Antonio Mora, had to make to Camps, who he urged not to ask "questions to the Prosecutor's Office for a matter of order" in room.

The magistrate has also asked the former president not to make "any comment" on the Anti-Corruption questions. "I ask the questions," prosecutor Concepción Nicolás snapped at Camps, who replied: "I know what you don't want me to say."