Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office plotted against Artur Mas and aimed to avoid a pro-independence majority

Barcelona (CNA).- The smear conspiracy between the Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office, Daniel De Alfonso and current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz continues to grow. This Thursday, Spanish newspaper ‘Público’ published new tapes according to which De Alfonso apparently suggested a plot to Fernández Díaz in order to replace former Catalan President, Artur Mas, with Germà Gordó, the Catalan Minister for Justice at the time of the conversation. On the recording, the Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office assures that former Catalan Minister for Home Affairs, Ramon Espadaler, agreed with the plot and that many businessmen would support the replacement. In his appearance before the Parliament’s Commission for Institutional Affairs this Thursday, De Alfonso considered himself “a scapegoat” and accused the parties in the Catalan Chamber of wanting an “overawed” and “docile” Anti-fraud Office.

According to the new tapes published by ‘Público’, De Alfonso offered a plan to Fernández Díaz to renew Liberal Convergència’s leadership. Convergència was Catalonia’s governing party at the time the recordings are said to have taken place, in 2014. De Alfonso bid for Germà Gordó, Catalan Minister for Justice at that time, to replace Mas at the head of Convergència and assured that many businessmen in Catalonia also supported the plan. The Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office also told Fernández Díaz that former Catalan Minister for Home Affairs, Ramon Espadaler, leader of Christian Democrat ‘Unió’ [the party in coalition with Convergència for nearly 40 years] agreed with the plot as well.

De Alfonso also referred to the possibility of a joint list which would gather together the two main pro-independence parties in Catalonia at that time, which were Convergència and left-wing ERC. Such a list, which was later created as ‘Junts Pel Sí’, “would be a madness”, stated De Alfonso. “This is worrying because if they win, and this is likely to happen, and none of the other parties are able to reach an agreement, these people can call for a unilateral declaration of independence…and then there will be blows”.

De Alfonso appears before the Parliament

As the Parliament announced on Wednesday, De Alfonso was due to give explanations before the Chamber’s Commission for Institutional Affairs (CAI). Once there, the Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office accused the different parties in the Parliament of using him as “a scapegoat” for their own interests and in a pre-electoral context, since Spain will hold general elections next Sunday. “Who is without conspiring sin cast the first stone”, he said and assured that he held meetings with parties “from all political colours”.

De Alfonso considered himself a “victim” on “an illegal recording” which was “biased” and “taken out of context”. The Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office considered all the parties in the Chamber “hypocritical” and accused them of submitting him to a “summary trial” and wanting an Anti-fraud Office which is “overawed” and “docile”.

Suspicion cast on PSC and Albert Rivera

De Alfonso insisted that he held meetings with all the political parties and in he particularly emphasised his contacts with the leaders of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’ leader, Albert Rivera. “Rivera came to see me and told me his party will support me in everything”, he said “and that I should give them something in exchange”, he added. The Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office considered it fundamental to figure out “who” obtained the tapes and “why” they were recorded at Jorge Fernández Díaz’s office. “It would be foolish to believe that it was me”, he stated.

Warning about Catalonia’s fight against corruption

De Alfonso also doubted whether the parliamentary groups’ determination in their fight against corruption. He explained that he hasn’t resigned because “the seven” senior officials in the Anti-fraud Office asked him “unanimously” to keep his position. De Alfonso stated that his dismissal for being an “extra uncomfortable director” of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office would “weaken” and even “paralyse” the fight against corruption. “This proves that a docile and overawed Anti-fraud Office is wanted”, he said. “I leave you to your political battles, but do not set aside the only man who is working hard to end corruption”, he concluded.