Rajoy, in the judgment on 'the papers of Bárcenas': "It is metaphysically impossible for him to destroy them"

In line with former president José María Aznar and with the four former general secretaries of the PP who have already declared in the trial on box b of the party that is held in the National Court since last February 8, Mariano Rajoy has also denied this Wednesday the veracity of the parallel accounting that Luis Bárcenas kept in his own handwriting.

“Box b does not exist.

There is no one, not a single person in the party, who spoke of box b ", insisted the former chief of the Executive between 2011 and 2018, who has taken the opportunity to reject the accusation that the popular ex-treasurer launched against him at the beginning of the oral hearing, when he assured that Rajoy shredded in his office a copy of his famous papers that he supposedly showed him before the scandal broke out.

"It is metaphysically impossible for me to destroy them."

“He has not given me any accounting.

The first time I saw [

Bárcenas's papers

] they were published in a national newspaper, [EL PAÍS], on January 31, 2013. Therefore, it is metaphysically impossible for him to destroy them ", Rajoy explained:" I have not shredded what has not been in my hands ”.

The former president, who has appeared by videoconference and without a mask - something that the accusations have welcomed, since he has been the only former high-ranking popular official who has shown his face on the screen - has turned the expression "it is false" into his most popular resource. usual.

As he has reiterated, not only was there no box b, but he never received any extra salary, as Bárcenas repeated during his statement and it is recorded in his papers that they collect deliveries for more than 80,000 euros in the name of “M.

Rajoy ”or“ Mariano Rajoy ”.

—You deny that it has anything to do with the initials “M.

Rajoy ”that appear?

Asked one of the popular accusations.

"That is absolutely false."

—And do you know if there are any M. Rajoy in the PP or similar?

"I think I have answered you with crystal clarity."

It is false of all falsehood.

“I have never been informed of any donation that the PP received.

I have never dealt with economic matters, neither income nor expenses ”, continued Rajoy, who held the leadership of the PP from 2004 to 2018. According to the instruction, box b worked for at least five years of his mandate, until 2009. “But, in my 40 years [of belonging to the political force], I have not heard any leader, militant or worker of the PP talk about the box b.

In this same trial, numerous charges have been passed and none have affirmed the existence of a box b.

There is no PP box b.

There will be some papers from Mr. Bárcenas, which he will have to explain ”.

The former president has thus discharged all responsibility on the former treasurer, as the former general secretary María Dolores de Cospedal did on Tuesday - “The parallel box does not exist.

It was not from the PP.

It would be from that person, ”he said.

"Those papers were never from the Popular Party," Rajoy reiterated this Wednesday: "The PP had a single accounting and, later, there is a man who had some papers, which are also a lie [...] He is giving as truth things that they are a lie.

Bárcenas' papers are his and they are a lie ”.

"We do not know when he made them or for what purpose," he added.

Asked then about those accounting notes recognized by the recipients (such as former deputies Eugenio Nasarre and Jaime Ignacio del Burgo, former senator Luis Fraga or former manager Cristóbal Páez), Rajoy has admitted that just those money outflows may be "true".

"I do not have to put it in solfa."

“But more than 95% of the people who appear [in those papers] have said that they are false.

For example me.

The vast majority of the people who appear in these papers have denied that the information given about them is true. "

The former leader of the popular ones has wanted to destroy the credibility of Bárcenas, of whom he has highlighted some version changes in recent years.

"Mr. Bárcenas is not even able to agree with himself."

"I think the one who has changed roles several times has been him."

Also, the former president has highlighted the dirty maneuvers that, according to his version, the former treasury did outside the PP.

"We know that he kept money [in his office in Genoa] and elsewhere, as we later learned," referring to the money that was found in Switzerland.

"He did things that could not be done," he has maintained while also accusing him of now trying to "mix others in decisions that were exclusively his and for his own benefit."

A "political" manager

The line marked by Rajoy in this session, the tenth since the hearing began last February, has been very similar to the one he drew in 2017, when he also testified as a witness in the trial on

Gürtel's

main plot

, known as Epoch I A case that ended with a judgment of the National Court that put into question the credibility of the former president, which condemned the party as a subsidiary civil responsible for profiting from the corruption network and which led to the motion of censure that ended with the departure of the PP from La Moncloa.

A ruling that the Supreme Court later confirmed.

Again, Rajoy has presented himself as a political official who never knew anything about the party's accounts.

"I dealt primarily with politics."

“I have directed electoral campaigns, but I was in charge of politics: of the lists, of what messages we were going to transmit ... That was my job.

Absolutely political ”.

"He did not keep accounts."

He has also affirmed that he knows nothing of the alleged payment with black money for part of the reform of the headquarters on Genova Street, as maintained by the Police and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.

Although he has acknowledged that he was consulted if he gave the go-ahead to the works.

"I have not dedicated myself to politics so that they pay me a suit or a coat," the former political leader has defended himself, who has not been asked by the Prosecutor's Office or the State Attorney.

“This is delusion.

And everything we are discussing begins to be a shame ".

Although he has shown a more cordial tone during his interrogation than Aznar, there has also been some moment of tension.

At the insistence of a lawyer, Rajoy has come to reply: "Do not continue there."

His response has provoked the intervention of the president of the court, José Antonio Mora: “We are in a judicial procedure and the lawyer has the perfect right to ask.

He is entitled to ask the questions he asks him ”, he explained.

Asked by Juan Moreno, a lawyer for Izquierda Unida (IU), an individual formation as a popular accusation, the SMS that Rajoy sent to Bárcenas in March 2013 after unveiling the parallel accounting have also come up.

"Why did you encourage him?"

That "be strong" —the lawyer has questioned.

"I had no close relationship with him."

He was texting me, I guess he was looking for some understanding.

I am aware that he was unlucky.

But, as you know, in life we ​​are not always right.