The president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, stated this Friday that he “doesn’t really know very well” what “she has done” the former Socialist Party member Leire Díez, who is being investigated for allegedly trying to halt court cases that affect the PSOE, “from the point of view of the crime,” and he insisted that at no time did he hold a meeting with her.
Sánchez explained that the PSOE paid around 40,000 euros for “the services of several law firms” that later hired the former party member. “That those law firms hired Leire Diez is something the PSOE was unaware of and I also don’t really know very well what this woman has done from the point of view of the crime,” he said in an interview on the podcast 'The Wild Project,' broadcast by Europa Press.
The head of the Executive downplayed the fact that Leire referred to him as 'The One' and ruled out any personal connection, as she herself declared to the judge, he pointed out. “When you have a kind of responsibility, a lot of people, unfortunately, also use your name without even knowing you. With Leire Díez, I haven’t had any meeting,” he stressed.
Asked about the possibility that he himself or the PSOE would file a lawsuit against the investigated former party member, Sánchez indicated that it will be something they will assess through the party’s legal services. “The moment it is proven that the party has been affected by any illicit activity, we do not rule out any legal action,” he added.
“Tremendous disappointment” with Ábalos and the “back face” he didn’t know
Sánchez acknowledged his “tremendous disappointment” with former minister José Luis Ábalos, whom he considered a friend, and who was convicted by the Supreme Court to 24 years in prison for irregularities in the acquisition of face masks. The PSOE’s secretary general said he was unaware that he was involved in prostitution and that he never made comments of that kind in his presence.
“I was very surprised,” he said about the former minister, whom he also described as a “very brilliant” person in his speaking. “But he had a 'back face' that I didn’t know about and, unfortunately, I had to act and I asked for forgiveness. I assumed that responsibility,” he emphasized. Immediately afterward, he pointed out that, in the case of the former PSOE Secretary of Organization Santos Cerdán, he respects the presumption of innocence and that “it will have to be seen how his case ends.”
In this same context, Sánchez has said that with the former ministerial adviser Koldo García “there was practically no communication,” although in the past they coincided “anecdotally” and took photos “sporadically”.
Nevertheless, he has admitted that he praised him on social media during his campaign in the PSOE primaries because, as he has related, he had “few internal supporters” and, when he found a grassroots member who backed him, he “lauded” him.
He says he changed his mind about Catalonia
On the other hand, the PSOE candidate in the elections on the 29N has defended that “the politician is not infallible” and, therefore, can correct himself, as happened in his case with Catalonia: first he supported the application of Article 155 of the Constitution and, over time, he pushed forward an Amnesty Law that benefited the leaders of the 'procès' who had been convicted.
Sánchez has admitted that what happened in 2017 “was very serious,” but he has said that his position evolved. He has placed “the catharsis” during the 2019 campaign, after the Supreme Court rulings against the leaders of the 'procès', when on a visit to a hospital “healthcare professionals, middle-class people” told him that they were imprisoning their representatives.
“I saw that there was a serious problem of coexistence and of a risk of territorial break-up in our country,” he said. From then on, his stance was changing and “also by listening to the independentist leaders”.
“I also understood that part of them were aware of what had happened and little by little we built up that trust,” which, as he has indicated, has made it possible for, although independence activism remains present in Catalonia, it is no longer “the main priority of Catalan society”.
“Asymmetrical” polarization and call to vote on the 29N
Likewise, Sánchez, who has condemned the attacks recorded at Vox events, has maintained that insults and political tension are “asymmetrical.” “I’m not saying I like fruit or son of a bitch to a person or a political opponent,” the president emphasized, who framed as “fascist techniques” the use of “dehumanization and simplification” by the opposition toward his figure as a communication strategy.
On this line, he has argued that, in “this historical juncture,” marked by “social injustices” and challenges such as the emergence of artificial intelligence, the climate emergency, the advance of the far right, or the housing problem, it is time to take a step “forward” and not abandon politics. He has also called for broad participation on November 29: “Even the Pope has voted (...) Voting right now is important, because we are not only playing for alternation, we are playing for regression,” he has said.
When asked how he defines his adversaries, regarding the candidate of the Frente Amplio, Ada Colau, he has said that she is “an activist,” while he has described the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, as a “conservative” from the 20th century.
As for the Vox leader, Santiago Abascal, he has joked that he should look for “a new tailor, ” because “he puts on very tight jackets,” and he has reproached him that “it is not good to live in resentment and permanent revenge.” “It seems to me that this country deserves other codes, other coordinates more linked to hope. That we have problems, without a doubt, but they are not answered with hatred and revenge,” he concluded.