The Popular Party has escalated this Tuesday the judicial pressure on the PSOE in the so-called Leire Díez case. The party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo has filed a document before the Audiencia Nacional requesting the investigating judge, Santiago Pedraz, to summon the Socialist Party as an investigated party for alleged crimes of bribery, embezzlement, influence peddling, money laundering, and illegal financing.
The request comes within the framework of the investigation led by Pedraz into alleged maneuvers aimed at hindering or deactivating judicial procedures that could affect the PSOE or the Government. In this case, among others, former socialist militant Leire Díez, former PSOE Organization Secretary Santos Cerdán, and the party's manager, Ana María Fuentes, are already listed as investigated parties.
The PP, which acts as popular prosecution in the procedure, maintains in its document that the investigated facts point to an organized structure from within the party's environment. The party now demands that the PSOE itself acquire the status of investigated party in the case and attributes to its leadership a "wide catalog of criminal actions."
The request must be studied by Judge Pedraz, who is already investigating various actions related to the alleged plot. The request from the popular party does not imply, by itself, that the PSOE has been charged or that the reported crimes have been judicially proven.
The PP places the origin of the plot in the PSOE leadership
One of the main arguments of the document presented by the popular party is that the investigated actions would not respond, according to their version, to individual initiatives, but to a structure linked to the leadership of the Socialist Party.
Specifically, the PP speaks of a "criminal organization" that, allegedly, would have been led by Santos Cerdán during his time as PSOE Organization Secretary and that would have been created at the party's national headquarters. According to the party, the purpose of this structure would have been to "protect the interests of the Government" and the PSOE against different judicial investigations.
The document links this alleged plot to the period after the five days of reflection that Pedro Sánchez took in April 2024, after publicly announcing that he was evaluating his continuity at the head of the Executive. Judge Pedraz had already placed a relevant point of the investigation at that time, considering that a meeting held in Ferraz on April 26, 2024, could mark the beginning of the activities attributed to the alleged plot.
The judicial investigation maintains that Cerdán would have commissioned Leire Díez to carry out actions aimed at destabilizing judicial procedures or police actions that could harm the PSOE or the Government. In May, Pedraz indicted Cerdán himself, the former vice president of the Junta de Andalucía Gaspar Zarrías, and the manager of the PSOE, Ana María Fuentes, within this investigation.
The PP now intends for the investigations to also extend to the criminal responsibility of the party as such.
The document points to Leire Díez and the PSOE manager
Feijóo's party also maintains that the alleged structure would have had the "collaboration" of Ana María Fuentes Pacheco, current manager of the PSOE, who remains under investigation in the case.
The PP also assures that the plot would have tried to "twist the will" of certain prosecutors and a Civil Guard commander. Among the names mentioned by the popular party are prosecutors José Grinda and Ignacio Stampa and Civil Guard commander Rubén Villalba.
At this point, the document establishes a connection between Leire Díez and Mercedes González, director general of the Civil Guard, through the "personal and repeated" relationship that, according to the PP, both maintained.
Pedraz's investigation has incorporated in recent months various proceedings related to Díez's alleged actions and the funds used to cover expenses linked to the plot. The UCO concluded in a report that the PSOE would have paid 43,225 euros to Díez through two intermediaries. According to investigators, four transfers of 4,000 euros and other payments linked to lawyers would have originated from the party.
The judge has also investigated the role of the socialist manager. In July, Pedraz maintained her status as investigated and rejected, among other issues, authorizing the cloning of her phone, considering that the measure was not proportionate at that time.
The PP also incorporates into its brief the financing of Crónica Libre. According to the party, the PSOE would have used public funds to finance this media outlet, which it describes as an "instrumental medium of the criminal organization." "Anything went to finance the sewers," states the communiqué released by the popular party.
The party also focuses on the "lack of controls" within the PSOE, both during the alleged implementation of the structure and currently.
