The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, assured this Tuesday in the Senate that he did not order any escort device for Leire Díez, the former PSOE militant accused of allegedly maneuvering against judicial proceedings affecting the Government. He also emphasized that there is no record of "any complaint" from judges regarding alleged political pressure on the investigations of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, defending that currently "all units work peacefully and under the principles of neutrality."
"Do not lie; there has been no escort provided to Leire Díez," Marlaska stated in the hemicycle, words that provoked an angry reaction from PP senators, who interrupted him shouting for his resignation. Sources from the Ministry of the Interior, however, admitted that the so-called 'PSOE plumber' had police counter-surveillance devices for about two months.
PP senator Marimar Blanco lashed out at the head of the Interior Ministry, whom she described as a minister "who has chosen the mafia over the homeland." She insisted that the UCO itself has "caught" him lying by detailing in reports submitted to the National Court several meetings between the Director General of the Civil Guard, Mercedes González, and Leire Díez, with the aim of "discrediting those who investigate P.S." -- in reference to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez --.
In his response, Marlaska alluded to both the UCO and the UDEF to defend that "all units work peacefully and under the principles of neutrality," contrasting this situation with what, in his opinion, happened under the last PP government, when "political opponents were spied on, evidence was created and destroyed, and there was a patriotic police force."
"Don't you realize that if that had happened, we would have received some complaint from one of the multiple judicial authorities who are intervening? No complaint; obviously because there is no action that deviates from legality within this Ministry of the Interior," the minister stressed before the Upper House.
Along the same lines, he insisted that, had he been aware of any order intended to condition the work of police units, he "would have prohibited and settled it immediately." He also added that the UCO currently has 90% more personnel and that "its budget has tripled."
Grande-Marlaska referred to the appearance scheduled for the 16th in the Senate by the director of the Guardia Civil -- who admitted that Leire Díez asked her to reinstate Commander Rubén Villalba, arrested in the 'Koldo case', a request she rejected -- reiterating again, as she did last Friday, that in "none of those meetings was the plot being investigated discussed."
The 'popular' senator Marimar Blanco maintained her reproaches, assuring that Marlaska "is becoming the puppet of the sewer." "For your own good, I tell you, leave once and for all," she snapped at the minister. He responded by emphasizing that "the mafia was in the Ministry of the Interior between 2011 and 2018," in reference to the period when Mariano Rajoy governed.
To conclude, Marlaska censured the PP for "dictating sentences" outside of the courts. "What I see here is that everyone is drawing conclusions, making inferences, except for the one who should, the judicial authority," he concluded in his speech.