“Better alone than in bad company”

Former PSOE organizational secretary Santos Cerdán appeared this Wednesday before the Senate commission of inquiry into the Koldo case. Although he formally took advantage of his right not to testify, he answered a few questions to deny any connection with Servinabar – the company of which he is said to be co-owner -, proclaim himself “innocent” and denounce a persecution that he has come to compare with the “Inquisition”. Cerdán also questioned the validity of the audios that incriminate him, as well as the investigation carried out by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard.

Cerdán appears in this commission almost a month after leaving prisonwhere he remained for five months after the release of a UCO report that placed him as the epicenter of an alleged corruption scheme to collect bribes in exchange for public works awards. The one who was number three in the PSOE arrived at the Senate this Wednesday accompanied by one of his lawyers, Jacobo Teijelo. Regardless, when PNV senator Mar Caballero asked him if he had support in his former party, Cerdán replied that “better alone than in bad company”.

Cerdán insisted throughout the interrogation that the incriminating audios found in Koldo García’s house could be manipulated, alleging that a 2019 recording could not be recorded with 2021 software and could be made with artificial intelligence. “It would be a good commission of inquiry in the Senate to know Who is behind this type of configuration?“, he launched. These eight audio files have enormous weight in the investigation led by judge Leopoldo Puente, because they contain conversations with the two former secretaries of the PSOE organization on the rigging of public works for which they are under investigation.

He also denied any connection with the Servinabar company and his participation in “any reward”, neither in Navarre nor elsewhere. However, a UCO report shows that Servinabar, a company that benefited from the rig, in turn covered Cerdán’s expenses, for an amount that is close to 100,000 euros. In addition, the Civil Guard discovered in June a contract signed in 2016, under which Cerdán purchased 45% of Servinabar from Joseba Antxon Alonso.

For Cerdán, everything starts from a persecution that he compares to the Inquisition. “No one is looking for the truth here or in Congress. They created a story that repeats itself and repeats itself“, he noted. He also regretted that a “police hypothesis” had made the headlines and was certain, which led him to “stoning him in the public square”. “I will defend myself, be clear, because I am innocent and I am not corrupt. Sooner or later they will be able to prove it,” he said.

The Toledo cigarral and the photo with Puigdemont

Cerdán avoided answering key questions: whether he placed members of his family in Servinabar, whether his party was aware of his ties to the company, whether he used the company to pay for a penthouse in Chamberí, or whether he dealt with María Chivite over the award of work. Throughout his appearance, he simply denied any relationship with Servinabar.

Although he answered some questions from the UPN and left-wing groups, he only responded to the senator of Vox, Ángel Gordillo, to ask him what happened in 2021, when the so-called leaders of this party met with members of the Civil Guard in a cigar in Toledo, thus eliminating the idea that everything responds to a political hunt conceived during this meeting.

The senator of the Junts, Eduard Pujol, answered most of his questions. It should be remembered that Santos Cerdán was the PSOE interlocutor with Carles Puigdemont. In fact, Cerdán assured that The 2023 photograph with Puigdemont in Brussels marked “a before and an after”. “At that time, several political forces had already warned me, after the photo of the Brussels agreement,” said Cerdán, who added that he now had to count on escorts in Madrid. “Everything changed after this photo.”

To Pujol’s question whether he would encounter “Catalanism” or Abertzale’s left again after what happened, Cerdán replied that “on a personal level” he would do “nothing” of what he did before, but that “on a political level” it was what he had to do and what he did. “The cost that I and those around me have suffered is very high for this,” he said.

“Better alone than in bad company”

Cerdán has not spoken much about his former party, he has simply denied that there was irregular financing, at least during the years he was there, and that the PSOE primaries in 2017 were financed “legally” through crowdfunding. However, faced with the question – rather a reproach – from the senator of his own party, Jesús Gil, Cerdán simply asked him to “open his eyes” and He wondered if he was “in a position” to “reproach” him. like the one who made it to him.

Indeed, given the senators’ various observations about the lack of support from his former party, Cerdán declared that to defend his innocence he did not need “anyone” to accompany him and that “Better alone than in bad company“. Faced with the reproaches of PP senator Gerardo Camps as to whether he was going to speak now that he does not have to protect anyone, Cerdán affirmed that the time to speak will not be “set” by him, but by his lawyers when they already have “all the reports from the UCO”.