Rajoy on Fernández Díaz’s smear conspiracy against pro-independence parties: “I just found out yesterday”

Barcelona (CNA).- Current Spanish President, Conservative People’s Party’s Mariano Rajoy, denied being aware of any plot involving current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and the Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office, Daniel de Alfonso Laso. “I just found out yesterday”, stated Rajoy this Wednesday in a radio interview. The scandal emerged on Tuesday, after the Spanish newspaper ‘Público’ published a recorded conversation in which Fernández Díaz and the Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office, Daniel de Alfonso Laso, allegedly plotted to find different ways to accuse and discredit Catalonia’s main pro-independence parties left-wing ERC and liberal Convergència. Fernández Díaz considered himself a “victim” and described the recordings as “illegal techniques” which prove a “repugnant behaviour” which is trying “to damage a political adversary and a particular party [PP]”.

“I just found out yesterday that this meeting [between current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and the Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office, Daniel de Alfonso Laso] took place and I didn’t know who was Director of the Spanish Anti-fraud Office nor that this position even existed”, stated Rajoy this Wednesday, in an interview with Onda Cero radio station.

About the conversation revealed by ‘Público’, he defined it as “two people talking about issues of their own competences” and insisted that he had “nothing to comment about it”. The current Spanish President also assured that his government “never” launched any investigation to harm political adversaries.    

Fernández Díaz: “We are victims”

Current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, has refused to resign and stated this Wednesday in a press conference that both him and the Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office, Daniel de Alfonso Laso were “victims” of conspiracy accusations and lamented that most of the parties “asked for resignations” and believed the information leaked by ‘Público’ rather than questioning why private conversations could be recorded. “There is a repugnant behaviour in using illegal techniques in order to try, in the last push of the electoral campaign, to damage a political adversary and a particular party [PP]”, he said. “The world has turned upside down”, he concluded.

Puigdemont laments “dirty war”

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont lamented the “dirty war” against Catalonia’s pro-independence process and assured that he feels both “sadness and rage” following the revelation of the alleged conspiracy against CDC. “It is unacceptable from all points of view, this is one of the biggest scandal in the last years”, he stated. Puigdemont said that “all the involved parties” should give explanations in the Catalan Parliament in order to “take the necessary measures”. He also called for Rajoy to give explanations but doubted whether he has enough “democratic decency” to do so.