The European Public Prosecutor's Office has focused on the 'Leire case' and has requested information to verify whether any of the investigated payments could have harmed the financial interests of the Union. The request affects an item allocated for advertising during the PSOE's campaign for the 2024 European elections and opens a new avenue around the case being investigated by Judge Santiago Pedraz in the Audiencia Nacional.
The movement became known this Thursday, although the official letter was sent on July 7. The delegated European prosecutor Luis Miguel Jiménez addressed the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard after receiving a complaint from an individual who requested to examine a possible diversion of electoral funds towards activities related to former socialist militant Leire Díez.
The document requests clarification on whether there are indications in the Spanish case regarding the reported facts and whether "the existence of affected European funds is recorded". The UCO forwarded the letter to Pedraz, and the magistrate responded this Wednesday that any request should be addressed directly to his court, which is responsible for centralizing the investigation.
This step is still in a preliminary phase. The European Public Prosecutor's Office seeks to determine if it has jurisdiction to intervene and, for the moment, the opening of its own investigation is not recorded. Its scope of action is limited to crimes that may cause economic harm to the Union, so it needs to know first where the money came from and what its destination was.
The holding of elections to the European Parliament also does not automatically convert campaign funding into community money. Electoral subsidies come from the General State Budgets and the accounts presented by the parties are reviewed by the Court of Accounts. The question now raised is to find out whether, within the facts investigated by Pedraz, any different European item appears that allows the community body to act.
The origin of the consultation is an advertising investment for the digital media outlet 'Crónica Libre', linked during its creation to Leire Díez. The documentation incorporated into the procedure includes a forecast that reached 20,000 euros. The amount finally executed was 14,980 net euros and 18,125 euros with Value Added Tax (VAT).
According to the UCO report, Mónica Hurtado de Mendoza, account director at the Iki Grup agency, questioned investigators about the usefulness of increasing investment in a small media outlet with limited capacity to handle more advertising. The Civil Guard is trying to clarify whether that commission was a real campaign or could have served to channel money to Díez's circle.
Another witness, journalist Nuria Coronado, explained that the former socialist militant participated in meetings prior to the creation of 'Crónica Libre'. According to her statement, the functions proposed for Díez were related to writing and seeking funding, although she was not aware that she had finally published articles.
The payment appears within a much broader investigation. Pedraz is examining a presumed structure promoted by the former PSOE Organization Secretary Santos Cerdán and coordinated by Leire Díez to obtain compromising information about judges, prosecutors, and Civil Guard agents linked to procedures affecting the party or the Government. The facts and individual responsibilities remain under investigation.
The PSOE denies any diversion
The PSOE responded this Thursday that it is not part of the procedure opened as a result of the European Public Prosecutor's Office's inquiry. The party recalls that electoral campaigns are financed with state funds and that their expenses are subject to the control of the Court of Accounts.
The socialist leadership maintains that it hired a media agency to insert electoral advertising in 'Crónica Libre'. Once the service was verified, it paid the agency its fees. According to this version, the party did not make a covert payment to Leire Díez nor did it finance activities unrelated to the campaign.
The PSOE also assures that it is not aware of any UCO report concluding that the money given to the agency served to remunerate other work. It also rejects that any witness has accredited this assumption and describes this interpretation as "false and not supported by any evidence."
The controversy thus focuses on three specific elements. The real usefulness of the contracting, the accreditation of the advertisements disseminated, and the final destination of the money managed by the agency. The prior control of the Court of Accounts over electoral accounting does not prevent a court from subsequently examining a specific payment when new evidence or testimonies appear.
Pedraz maintains control of the case for now and has asked the European Public Prosecutor's Office to address the Audiencia Nacional directly. The contract with the agency, the invoices, the advertising insertions, and the exact origin of the funds remain at the center of the judicial checks.
