Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, in the focus of the Kitchen case: Rajoy's former vice president testifies in a key week at the National Court

The trial for the operación Kitchen enters a decisive moment in the Audiencia Nacional with the appearance of the former Vice President of the Government Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría. Her testimony could shed light on the knowledge or involvement of the highest echelons of the Executive in the alleged espionage of the former treasurer of the Partido Popular, Luis Bárcenas.

The investigation focuses on an alleged operation deployed between 2013 and 2014 against Bárcenas, in the midst of the crisis of the Gürtel case. According to the accusations, this operation would have been designed from the Ministry of the Interior during the Government of Mariano Rajoy to obtain and destroy compromising information for party leaders.

The session starts with the statement of Guillermo Bárcenas, son of the former treasurer of the PP, who will recount the surveillance and episodes of intimidation suffered by his family in those years. These facts, which include an assault on their home, are interpreted by the family as part of the Kitchen operation, although they were not fully incorporated into the judicial case.

The statement by Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría is especially relevant. The former vice president already denied in 2025, before a parliamentary commission, any involvement in a supposed “political police”. However, the accusations aim to clarify whether the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, which depended on her area, could have participated in the espionage work.

The week is completed with the appearance of the PP senator Javier Arenas and other key witnesses such as Colonel Diego Pérez de los Cobos and Inspector Manuel Morocho. The latter, responsible for the investigation of the Gürtel case, expects to ratify before the court the alleged illegality of the Kitchen operation and denounce internal pressures to stop the investigations, in a process that continues to put key State institutions under scrutiny.