Former Councilor of the Generalitat denies directives to contract with 'Gürtel': 'El Bigotes' "I cared about a bledo"

He assures that if he was awarded the plot it was because there was still "no demonization" of its leaders

MADRID, 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former Minister of Social Welfare of the Generalitat Valenciana Alicia de Miguel has denied this Tuesday, during the trial that is being held at the National Court for 'Gürtel' that she received guidelines from the former president Francisco Camps to contract with the plot ensuring that one of the leaders, Álvaro Pérez 'El Bigotes', "did not give a damn".

De Miguel, who is facing a nine-year disqualification request for a crime of prevarication, has expressed himself in this way to questions from the Prosecutor's Office during this trial for the award to Orange Market, one of the Gürtel companies, of the contract to the Valencian exhibitor of the Fitur 2009 edition.

"No idea, I never saw any of them," she assured after being asked if she knew the main leaders of the plot when contracts with the companies were closed. "Gürtel had not left, we had no reports from the Tax Agency or the Police. It was one more company. There was no demonization of these gentlemen because Gürtel did not exist," she has maintained.

Thus, he has ruled out that he had an interest in favoring the group. "I didn't care exactly as long as they did it well who it was," argued De Miguel, who added that Camps never urged him to give Gürtel preferential treatment. "Never: with Camps he spoke about the social policies of the Valencian Government," he insisted.

In this context, the ex-minister has charged harshly against her former chief of staff, Enrique Navarro, one of the defendants who have settled in this oral hearing. Specifically, de Miguel has reproached him for stating that the Ministry contracted with 'El Bigotes' to "ingratiate" Gürtel.

In his statement at the trial, Navarro assured that De Miguel came "to say that (El Bigotes) had an important friendship with (the former general secretary of the Valencian PP) Ricardo Costa and proximity to Camps", urging him to give them preferential treatment.

"This is the end. If this weren't so dramatic and painful, it's a joke. That Pérez had that ability... ridiculous. It's an absurd thing, nonsense, nonsense. Mr. Costa didn't bring me anything at all because he didn't He had a position in the party. I could see Mr. Costa three times, nothing. Mr. Costa was secretary general and he had no capacity to do anything", the former minister argued.

In this line, De Miguel has downloaded the responsibility of hiring Navarro, explaining that she only dealt with the acts. "I couldn't take care of myself (with anything else) because I didn't have enough (...) Mr. Navarro had all my confidence and he was completely autonomous in his actions because he knew much more than me," she has maintained.

The former minister has made her former chief of staff ugly with her version of events. A change that is due, in her opinion, to achieving an objective: "He lies blatantly. He wants above all to reach an agreement so that his sentence is reduced and that his position as an official is not in danger at any time" .

At this point, De Miguel has exposed to the room the extract of a news item related to the agreement reached by Navarro with the Prosecutor's Office. In it, it can be read that his former chief of staff accuses him of having given him orders to force him to prevaricate.

"He has lied, but I am like the merchant of Venice: if they prick me I also bleed. That Enrique Navarro, to whom I gave all my trust, has done this and says that he cheated... well, if you cheated, well you deceived us all If I found out, his dismissal would have been sudden," he asserted.

According to De Miguel, Navarro himself was "responsible for the acts and the one who worked with all the companies he considered appropriate." That was the reason, he has added, for which he introduced him to 'El Bigotes'.

"Because Navarro was an expert on this subject. He was always the one who met with the businessmen who had issues of communication and assembly of events. He worked with them, reached agreements on invoices and costs and communicated it to the general directors because they had no competence for hiring", he added.

The session on Tuesday has also served to listen to the statement of the former regional Secretary of Sport David Serra, who has already been sentenced to 3 years and 8 months in prison for the irregular financing of the Valencian PP. The Prosecutor's Office requests for him nine years of disqualification for a crime of prevarication.

Asked about hiring 'El Bigotes' for the Tennis Open held in the autonomous community, Serra called attention to Pérez's "capacity and ability" to "deceive a lot of people". "Apart from being a bully, he took his chest out of things that were not true", he has stated.

In this context, Serra has denied that he had a "friendly" relationship with Pérez. "I did not trust, I did not trust," she explained, acknowledging that, despite everything, she ate with 'El Bigotes' on several occasions.

However, he wanted to make it clear that neither Pérez nor the leader of Gürtel, Francisco Correa, had anything to do with him in relation to the contract with Orange Market. Likewise, he has been blunt when asked if he received indications from Camps.

"In the years that I was in the administration I never received any indication or received anything. And I can tell you that if I had received the case that I would have made, it would have been none. Neither from Camps nor from any member of the Valencian Government", he has had an impact .

Thus, Serra has defended that the Generalitat was "a serious administration" and has assured that he would put "his hand on the table" in this regard. "Because no one ever gave me any indication," he added.