The recipient of the letters of recommendation in favor of Barrabés highlights a government position

Under the mandate of Cierco, who led this public company dependent on the Ministry of the Economy until May 2021 and testified this Thursday before the commission of inquiry into corruption cases surrounding both the executive and the entourage of Sánchez, hirings valued at more than ten million euros from entities of the entrepreneur beneficiary of the scheme. Despite this, he maintained that he was not aware of the letters and that it was not him who changed the evaluation criteria during the tender, but Lacambra later.

Cierco acknowledged having signed the specifications for subsequent submission to the Red.es board of directors, but guaranteed that it was the company’s general director of digital economy, Luis Prieto, still in office, who was responsible for preparing them. The contracting of the files was “exemplary”, he declared, and “to this day I have not seen the letters”. And “not a single comma” of the documents was redacted, he assured. Furthermore, according to Cierco’s version, at the time he left his position at Red.es for personal reasons, the files were not even resolved, so he had “absolutely no knowledge.”

“With the socialist government, Mr. Barrabés is either recommended and wins, or he does not run. “He never loses,” the senator asked. PPGeardo Camps, to which Cierco responded that the businessman also received awards during the PP era.

Cierco also acknowledges knowing Barrabés for almost twenty years because being in the world of technology and not knowing him, he compared, “is like being in the world of football and not knowing Raúl González Blanco” . What he didn’t explain was how it came to him: “Maybe I found it at an event…”. Although he initially admitted that he had had “no” relationship with the businessman as director of Red.es, he later rectified and admitted having seen him “once” during a visit to a technology center managed by the businessman. “Seeing people once is not having a relationship,” Cierco argued.

He knows Sánchez and Gómez. But only, according to him, “because they are public figures”. The former socialist councilor of the Pozuelo de Alarcón City Hall (Madrid) also appears in images taken during party events alongside the head of the Executive. Additionally, Gómez was the speaker at an Atrevia World Congress when Cierco headed a foundation of that company. Asked by the PP why he promoted it on social media, he said he also “reposts” “Lamine Yamal when he scores a goal.”

The strategy of the PSOE

The PSOE’s strategy consisted of defending that knowing Barrabés “is not proof of anything”, since the businessman was a speaker at a congress in January 2019, under the title “Spain in Freedom”, during the time of Pablo Casado. the presidents José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy participated, as well as the president of the Xunta de Galicia at the time and current leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

“The mentality of the PP is that if someone knows you and hires you, it is more suspicious,” denounced socialist senator José Hila, recalling that “the call for tenders from Madrid City Hall also included these letters expression of interest in Barrabés”. Therefore, “if one institution is bad, they all are.” After six months, it is very clear that this is an indictment and not an investigation.

Sociedad Innova Next SLU, owned by Barrabés, also benefited in 2021 from a public award from Madrid City Hall, already in the hands of José Luis Martínez-Almeida, worth almost 1,800,000 euros so that the entity provides support services to the management of the General Directorate of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, explained Hila.

The files were processed “normally”, letters of expression of interest are “a common phenomenon in public administration”, knowing Barrabés and contracting with him “is not a crime” and his obligation as general director of Red .es who was part of the board of directors was to “deal with what was raised at the hiring table. Not doing so is procrastinating.