The first session of the Congressional Commission of Inquiry into Operation Catalunya welcomed the appearance of two prominent members of the Ministry of the Interior at the time of the events, the Secretary of State for Security Francisco Martínez and the Deputy Operational Director of the police Eugenio Pino. Both followed the planned script and barely answered the MPs’ questions. Between them, they have already made five appearances in commissions of this type and this Tuesday, on the occasion of the parapolice maneuvers against the sovereignty process, the former number two of the Interior assured that Operation Catalunya ” does not exist.”
“What the Ministry of the Interior is doing is identifying a risk that compromises the constitutional order [en alusión al proceso soberanista en Catalunya] and this, from a security point of view, can cause crimes. Then the state acts. But if we talk about a written strategy with a development such as the National Security Strategy or against cybercrime, this [la Operación Catalunya] This does not exist,” Martínez said in one of his interventions.
Martínez told Sumar’s deputy, Eloy Badia, that attributing to him or other Interior Ministry officials in the Rajoy government certain actions of some police officers would be tantamount to attributing to current political leaders what the civil guards involved in the crime. finished. ‘Koldo Affair’.
In line with what he had already expressed in his appearances and in some interviews with the media, Martínez denied the existence of a project within the Ministry of the Interior aimed at harming the independence movement, through investigations prospective information on its leaders or their relatives, the preparation of files without seal or signature and, finally, their publication in the media linked to the Popular Party Government.
The second line of his brief argument is that the police actions that may have taken place took place under the absolute autonomy of the police officers who carried them out. When asked by ERC spokesperson Pilar Vallugera about the existence of a “deep state”, Francisco Martínez replied: “I wouldn’t call it that, but the ministers are coming with a train that is moving at the speed of the AVE and that this must continue, whoever the minister is. I don’t know about the “deep state”, but the Corps, in their operational part, must act at all times with a certain or great autonomy in relation to political leaders. »
From the beginning, Martínez warned that his involvement in the judicial processes would prevent him from referring to the questions asked of him by deputies. He used this argument again when Podemos spokesperson Ione Belarra asked him about a recording in which Martínez himself requested the police records of newly appointed Podemos deputies in 2015. This conversation is part of a case brought before the Court of Instruction number 5 of the National Parliament. Court, on the maneuvers against the political party in which he is accused.
In any case, Martínez added, he does not recognize himself in the Villarejo recordings that expose him and, in the specific case cited by Belarra, he denounced the “illegal and illegitimate access” of Podemos to those -this. It refers to the decision adopted by judge Manuel García Castellón according to which his WhatsApp conversations could neither be disseminated nor used after their publication.
Commissioner Pino: “It’s a political commission, I’m a police officer”
After Martínez, it is the turn of Eugenio Pino, the commissioner chosen by the PP to lead the police and the architect of the so-called “political brigade”. Pino used his status as a retired police officer before what he described as “a political commission” and in this sense he added that he could not speak about the issues he had learned in his role as a member of the state security forces. .
In Kitchen’s commission, ERC spokesperson Gabriel Rufián managed to obtain from Pino the declaration that he would be ready to “do whatever is necessary” for Spain. Rufián, who joined the commission during this second appearance, asked Pino if he maintained this assertion. “I already told you yes,” replied the commissioner. Rufián asked him if he was a “corrupt commissioner” and referred to certain right-wing deputies as the policeman’s “comrades.” When Pino reprimanded Rufián on the historical meaning of the term “comrade,” the ERC spokesperson ended his intervention: “I say “comrade” because it bores him.
In general, MPs naturally assumed that those appearing, as has happened on other occasions, would refuse to answer their questions. With the exception of Podemos, or Rufián con Pino, the parliamentary groups have not chosen their usual spokespersons. The representatives of the PP and Vox chose to criticize the partisan interest of the commission and did not ask questions. The commission is part of the agreement between government parties and the ERC for the latter to support the nomination of socialist Francina Armengol as President of the Chamber.
