The former president of Cantabria and general secretary of the PRC, Miguel Ángel Revilla, has confirmed this Thursday before the judge that, in his opinion, the statements made by the ‘popular’ José Luis Vallines in an interview about the Carreteras plot amount to a “serious insult.” For this reason, he has filed a lawsuit against him and has underscored that he is willing to “go all the way,” and that it should be a magistrate who determines whether or not there is a crime.
Revilla appeared for something less than half an hour before the head of the Investigating Court of Plaza Número 2 of the Court of First Instance in Santander, within the framework of the case opened as a result of the lawsuit filed by him and by the also regionalist José María Mazón, former Minister of Public Works and former national deputy. The legal action is directed against Vallines, who was president of the PP between 1990 and 1995, vice president of the regional government and senator, for statements made in an interview granted to a regional outlet in October 2025.
In that conversation, Vallines stated that “Revilla knew what was happening with the public works official,” sentenced to seven years in prison for manipulating contracts after the agreement reached a month earlier between the parties. In addition, the former ‘popular’ leader emphasized that “it is impossible for that plot to have existed without his knowledge.”
Along the same lines, he maintained that in a case of “significant corruption” like this “participation of both has to occur: a politician and a civil servant. By themselves they can do nothing.” And he added: “It is impossible for that plot to have existed without them knowing it and tolerating it. I have no doubt that they knew what was happening because the people affected themselves were going to complain.”
At the exit from the courts, Revilla has explained that these statements by Vallines have “surprised” him and “hurt” him, since they come from someone who knows firsthand his political career, with whom he has maintained a relationship “even beyond politics,” and with whom he shared the Council of Government for years.
“I have been in his house, I’ve eaten in his house, we’ve taken trips together, we’ve lived together in the Government...,” Revilla recalled, and for that reason he considers it “unthinkable” that Vallines could claim that he knew about the Carreteras plot. In this regard, he has emphasized that “my main asset in politics in 24 years is honesty.”
The regionalist leader has reiterated that "honesty" constitutes his "fundamental heritage" and believes that, with Vallines's words, that moral capital "was left touched."
Before going to court, a conciliation event was held in which Revilla and Mazón asked the former PP leader to retract his accusations. As the regionalists have explained, Vallines "seems that he hasn't" made that correction, so it will now be the judge who decides whether there is a crime of slander and libel.
Revilla has also emphasized that "in 20,000 folios" of the well-known one also referred to as the 'Public Works case' "there is nowhere, any involvement by anyone in the Government of Cantabria, neither of advisers, nor of public officials."
After the statements by Revilla and Mazón, who have attended accompanied by their lawyer, Vallines is expected to appear as an investigated person on the 12th, at 12.00 hours.
Revilla entered the courtroom barely one minute after the scheduled time, 12.30, and left the courthouse shortly before 13.00 hours. Then Mazón gave his statement, whose appearance also lasted a little more than half an hour.
As he has recounted to the media on leaving, Mazón stated before the judge that neither he nor Revilla ever had "any knowledge of anything" related to this plot. "He is still in time to retract himself," the regionalist added, referring to Vallines.
In addition to demanding the public retraction of those statements, the two complainants are seeking compensation of 3,000 euros each for damages and losses. Mazón has said that, if they obtain it, they will donate that amount entirely to the Cocina Económica.