Spanish parliament corners Fernández Díaz for Operation Catalonia

MadridJorge Fernández Díaz will have to explain himself in parliament about Operation Catalonia. The PSOE, ERC, and the PDC have reached an agreement to debate together and vote in the full session of the lower chamber on Tuesday next week for the creation of an investigative commission into the activities of the Interior Ministry's so-called "patriotic police unit". It will be the first Congressional investigation since the attacks of 11-M in 2004. And it has everything in its favor: once again, the PP is expected to end up alone in the chamber in its rejection of this initiative. Rafael Hernando, the PP spokesman, blamed the PSOE of doing the independence supporters' "dirty work" in order to win their support for a "Sanchestein" government, with Pedro Sánchez heading a coalition supported by Podemos, ERC, and the PDC.

"Investigative commission" are major words for Mariano Rajoy's government. Since the general elections on December 20, the Spanish cabinet has refused to give explanations before Congress, claiming that it is merely a caretaker government. But to leave the chair empty when you have been called to appear before a commission of this type would be punishable with contempt of Parliament, and if the person called by Congress were a civil servant, they could face a penalty of disqualification for public office. "Better that the Interior Minister, whether he continues to be so or not, appears", warned Antonio Hernando, PSOE spokesman in Congress, after the spokespersons council yesterday agreed to include the vote in the plenary session scheduled for next week.

Still, Fernández Díaz might not have to give his explanations until well into next year. If in the end the parties are unable to form a government and third elections are needed, the Spanish parliament would be dissolved on October 31 without having begun the investigative process. In that case, the next legislature would have to approve the probe once again. Both the PSOE and the Catalan pro-independence parties have vowed to demand it. The only party that could throw a wrench into the works is Ciudadanos. Yesterday Albert Rivera's party broke its agreement with the PP for the third time in Congress and sided with the rest of the opposition groups. Ciudadanos will back the creation of the investigative commission next week, but the executive committee of the House --where the PP and Ciudadanos together have an absolute majority-- has the final word on setting a starting date.

The other battle will be to decide who will be summoned, besides Fernández Díaz. The PDC is counting on Daniel de Alfonso, former director of the Anti-Fraud Office in Catalonia, and José Angel Fuentes, chief inspector, who was supposedly tasked with travelling to Switzerland to pay 1.5 million euros to an informer for specific information regarding the alleged irregular bank accounts of Xavier Trias, former Barcelona mayor, according to the latest reports.

The socialists were the first to register a petition to investigate Fernández Díaz on July 20th, not two weeks after José Manuel Villarejo, Commissioner of Spain’s National Police force, revealed the existence of Operation Catalonia. On August 11, ERC and the PDC joined together in Congress against the Minister and submitted their own request. Now the PSOE has managed to include its proposal in the first ordinary debate of this term, and has reached out to pro-independence parties to debate the two proposals together. But it is as yet unclear as to how the vote will go. Ciudadanos only wants to support the PSOE’s proposal because they believe that that of the Catalan pro-independence parties is an act of "victimism".

Initiative against the referendum

The PP is clinging to denouncing an alliance between the PSOE and pro-independence parties as a way to prevent the commission from getting the green light. On Monday, the PP filed a new proposal in Congress in defense of the unity of Spain, a way of forcing the PSOE to take a stand on the matter at a time when Pedro Sánchez is considering a second confidence vote in parliament to become the new Spanish president. Six months ago the so-called "constitutionalist parties" had already clashed over this topic. At the moment, this proposal --not a bill of law-- is not expected to come up for a vote.

Also moving against Fernández Díaz will be the Senate. The PDC yesterday filed a motion to request the recusal of the Minister, and for the Spanish government to remove him from office due to Operation Catalonia. It is expected, however, that with the PP's absolute majority in the upper chamber the motion will not succeed in next week's vote. But it could serve to force Ciudadanos to take a position for or against.

The Minister: "They want to win the civil war forty years later”

Jorge Fernández Díaz believes that it is "simply regrettable" that the first investigative commission in Congress since that of the 11-M bombing in Madrid would be against the Interior Ministry. In Pamplona yesterday, where he was presiding over a ceremony to present the Spanish flag to the Civil Guard, he referred to the accusation of spying on political adversaries to cover for PP corruption as "offensive" to judges, prosecutors, civil guards, and police. At the same event, the Minister warned that "there are those who want to win the Civil War forty, or however many, years later". He said this in response to the decision by the City of Pamplona to exhume the remains of generals Molas and Sanjurjo (General Franco’s associates) from the crypt at the Monument to the Fallen in the Navarre capital.