Catalans accuse Spain of smears to discredit vote
Police told to investigate region’s president as mass protests held in support of independence referendum
THE Spanish government has been accused of conducting a smear campaign against Catalonian politicians in a bid to discredit Sunday’s independence referendum, after a judge ordered police to investigate a corruption case involving the Catalan president.
Spanish police searched the premises of companies connected to the council in the city of Girona, where Carles Puigdemont served as mayor between 2011 and 2016, a day before raids on Catalan government buildings saw 14 arrests in an operation targeting referendum operations.
A judge in Girona is investigating alleged kickbacks of €15million (£13million) from private water companies to city politicians, an arrangement believed to stem from the Nineties, long before Mr Puigdemont became mayor.
The news came as protests were held in hundreds of towns across Catalonia yesterday in support of the referendum. Up to 4,000 Spanish police have been sent to the region to keep order.
On Saturday, the state prosecutor in Catalonia told all local and national police forces they would be placed temporarily under a single chain of command and report to Madrid. The Catalan government initially said it would refuse, though its regional police, the Mossos d’esquadra, later said it would comply.
The Girona probe was launched after a complaint by councillors from the Left-wing pro-independence CUP party, who now complain about the suspicious timing of the raids.
“We reported this in 2015. All that time there has been enough evidence on the table for the raids to have taken place in the past year. But they happen now, just days before the referendum,” said Lluc Salellas, a councillor.
“Operation Catalonia is back,” said Jordi Turull, a Catalan government spokesman, using the name given to a secret police probe over recent years that has led to a judicial investigation into a former Catalan president, and allegations of corruption against Artur Mas, a pro-independence leader and former mayor of Barcelona.
The accusations gained steam on Thursday when the Spanish parliament approved the conclusions of a cross-party commission that under Jorge Fernández Díaz, former interior minister, elements within the national police force had “pursued political opponents”. The report cited cases such as that of Pablo Iglesias, leader of the Left-wing Podemos party, who has fought off media reports and two attempted prosecutions regarding allegedly illegal payments from the governments of Venezuela and Iran.
The government of Mariano Rajoy, the conservative prime minister, denies meddling in judicial investigations. “Crimes are pursued by judges with complete independence, whether it’s corruption in Girona city hall or any other place in Spain,” a Spanish government spokesman said. “The government merely complies with the law, and ensures that laws are complied with.”
Xavier Trías, a Catalan nationalist former mayor of Barcelona, is also mentioned in the report as being the victim of a smear campaign, which led to the publication of claims he held millions in Swiss and Andorran bank accounts.
Asked by The Daily Telegraph for a response to the conclusions of the report, a government spokesman placed the findings within the “ambit of political debate”, pointing out that a judicial investigation into Mr Díaz Fernández and the contents of the tape was shelved.
The Catalan government is convinced that there is a strategy to discredit its leader. “They’ll do whatever it takes to avoid finding a political solution,” a source close to Mr Puigdemont told The Telegraph.
‘There has been enough evidence for the raids to have taken place in the past year. But they happen now’