At the moment there will be no commission of investigation of the Mediator case. The popular parliamentary group brought this initiative to the Board of Spokesmen yesterday, which was rejected.
However, the government groups did commit to holding appearances on this case in the Interior Commission and in the Democratic Quality Commission. One of them will star the director of the Civil Guard, María Gámez, possibly next week. The Democratic Quality commission could call the former socialist deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, investigated in this case, but would not have the obligation to attend.
This would be so because it would not appear in a commission of inquiry whose characteristics are different from those of an ordinary commission. In a commission of investigation, those appearing are obliged to attend, they must tell the truth under threat of sanction and all the required documentation must be delivered without discussion.
PSOE, UP, ERC, Bildu and PNV rejected this Popular Party initiative at the meeting, although the reasons for this rejection were not the same. ERC and Bildu are particularly interested in investigating the irregularities detected, within the Mediator scandal, in the Civil Guard. In fact, yesterday in Congress the spokespersons for both formations even suggested that the PSOE had agreed to create a commission to investigate precisely the irregularities detected in this body.
However, at noon the socialist spokesman, Patxi López flatly denied that the socialist group had accepted it. “Both of us have come to the conclusion that a specific investigation commission on the Civil Guard and the awarding of works to barracks when it is in court and there is summary secrecy… may not be of any use.” In the same sense, the PNV spokesman expressed himself, who, however, assured that he will ask the Minister of the Interior for explanations about the case.
The Mediator case is a far-reaching scandal. Initially it splashed socialist leaders and businessmen from the Canary Islands; also a division general of the Civil Guard -imprisoned- who would have acted in recent years. But this week the plot was linked to another, previously investigated. It is an alleged corrupt network of adjudication of works in Civil Guard barracks that extends to the entire Peninsula and affects not only this legislature but previous ones.
Hence, the PP is very interested in investigating the Canarian socialist leaders and in particular the former socialist deputy, expelled from the party, while left-wing groups have aroused enormous interest in revealing what happened in relation to the reforms of the Civil Guard barracks.
Parallel to this mess, yesterday the groups of the majority of the investiture with the PSOE at the head promised to promote, this time, a commission of investigation on the Catalonia operation in which, yesterday they assured that they would also join the latest revelations about the Kitchen case. Sources from Podemos assured yesterday that if this commission is constituted they will call the former president of the Popular Party, Pablo Casado, to testify.
