Him The Cerdan case It has become a minefield for the PSOE. At any moment everything can explode again. The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Guardia Civil has yet to deliver to the Supreme Court an analysis of the assets of Santos Cerdán, secretary of the party organization between 2021 and 2025, and analyze the enormous material found during the searches on November 14, when it entered the offices of two cooperatives linked to the lot and to Acciona, as well as the home of a former director of the construction giant (Justo Vicente Pelegrini, who was located in several clandestine meetings with the politician). Investigating judge Leopoldo Puente himself admitted this week that “new lines of investigation have been opened” after studying the latest UCO report, which “reinforces” the “consistent indications” of criminality against the former socialist leader. This document provides new photos and messages about Cerdán.
The agents thus fuel their investigations with conversations between Cerdán and his surroundings to corner him. “For the moment he is free, his name is not available”, says a new one Whatsapp found, exchanged between the owner of Servinabar, Joseba Antxon Alonso, and his wife, friends of Cerdán, and sent when the cause had not yet been reported to him. “If you like, we can have dinner with Santos,” says another, sent by Alonso to Pelegrini, which adds to the series of messages on which the Guardia Civil had already focused in previous reports, such as “from party to party spending money” or “the best thing is for you to make me sit with the Navarrese”.
Ferraz and the Executive try to distance themselves and insist that they sever relations with him, as well as with his predecessor in office (former minister José Luis Ábalos), as soon as they become aware of his alleged corruption. But the latest report from the armed institute, published last Tuesday, has once again sown uncertainty about what will happen in some sectors of the PSOE. This is how Emiliano García-Page, president of Castilla-La Mancha and critical voice of Pedro Sánchez, summarized it: “This relationship seems not to be the last. And they are people who have commanded a lot, who have decided a lot, and who have done so in the most direct environment of power.” “It’s like Groundhog Day, always reliving the same nightmare,” adds the general secretary of another federation.
The UCO report released this week, before the release of Santos Cerdán from Soto del Real prison (Madrid), according to which the risk of destruction of evidence was “mitigated” by carrying out the searches on 14 November, represents another step forward in the investigation. The police document, which places the former deputy at the top of the conspiracy, revolves around three main axes.
The first, his ability to “control” the Servinabar company, which participated in prizes with Acciona (they have already found an alleged private contract in which the owner of that company, Joseba Antxon Alonso, gave him 45% of the shares). The second, Cerdán’s role as a “link” between Acciona and the Ministry of Transport (hence the importance given to the photos and messages discovered which suggest his relationship with Pelegrini). And the third, that for the first time a certain flow of money was “credited” (in the words of the UCO) from Servinabar to Cerdán and its surroundings, through the suspicious hiring of relatives (including his wife Francisca Muñoz), the payment of apartment rents in Madrid and expenses recorded on a credit card attributed to the former PSOE official.
Upon his release on Wednesday, Cerdán’s first statement to journalists aimed to discredit the Guardia Civil’s analysis: “The first thing I want to say is that many lies are told and that there are many manipulations on the interpretation of the two reports on me,” he assured. He then went to Milagro, his hometown in Navarra, where he was seen on Thursday leaving and entering the house, avoiding making comments to the press.
Santos Cerdán, in his appearance on June 30 before judge Leopoldo Puente, before being sent to provisional prison, had already reiterated his innocence. He denied having “brokered” any work awarded to Acciona and denied having an affair with Servinabar. “I didn’t take a single euro,” he added. But the latest UCO report is, in fact, a howitzer against that line of defense by providing new messages, photos and documents that call it into question.
One of the many examples that the Guardia Civil puts on the table – with the aim of strengthening its incriminating thesis – is a Whatsapp on May 22, 2017. Joseba Anxton Alonso writes to Justo Vicente Pelegrini: “Hi Justo, if it goes well with you tomorrow we can have dinner with Santos in Madrid”. According to the UCO, the dinner “actually took place” on May 23, at the La Paloma restaurant, on Jorge Juan street, in the capital. Only two days had passed since Sánchez won the primaries after being ousted; and, just six days later, Acciona and Servinabar will sign a contract under which the large construction company undertakes to pay the latter 2.8 million euros for the drafting of the safety plan for the Mina Muga project.
However, this is not the only intercepted conversation useful to the UCO. In their reports, the agents have accumulated many others that point to Santos Cerdán:
“It’s free for now.” On February 20, 2024, the Guardia Civil arrested Koldo García in the first phase of this investigation. The case then focused on the irregular granting of contracts for the sale of masks to Commissioner Víctor de Aldama, who was also captured. News of their arrest only emerged on February 21. That day, Cerdán’s “friend” and alleged partner, Joseba Antxon Alonso, receives a message from his wife with a link to the information reporting the incident. «For the moment he is free, his name is not available», the woman tells him. But the owner of Servinabar immediately forwards another piece of news to his partner in which the secretary of the Organization is cited as the “first godfather that Koldo had within the PSOE”. She responds with an “uff”. For the agents, this “concern” of both “abounds” in the alleged “participation of Santos in the events under investigation”.
“If we can’t get them in, nothing will be possible.” After the motion of censure against Mariano Rajoy, the PSOE landed in June 2018 in La Moncloa and Ábalos in Transportes. The time has come to appoint many senior officials. On June 16, Cerdán sent a Whatsapp to Koldo García, the minister’s collaborator: “Several appointments have been made, if we cannot include any of them, nothing will be possible.” The UCO considers this message a true declaration of intent.
“We consider you to be our eyes and ears…”. Scholars place the “origin” of the conspiracy in Navarre, where Cerdán began his political career; and they point out Mina Muga as the first suspicious contract in which everyone comes together: Koldo García, Santos Cerdán, Acciona, Servinabar… In that project of the Geoalcali company, whose consultant sends a e-mail to Koldo on August 25, 2015 where he apologized for not having given him a copy in a previous email and added: “I have to take care of these things so that you and Santos, above all, are informed of our steps. I never want to make mistakes of this kind. Consider that YOU (sic) are considered our Eyes and Ears…”. Cerdán was then a regional deputy and organizational secretary of the PSN.
“500 notes that the boy from Gipuzkoa gave him.” The suspicions arise from Koldo García’s tape recordings. In one dated November 23, 2023, he tells Ábalos: “That son of a bitch from Santos kept some money, which he did in front of me (…) He used me for 15 years and didn’t give me anything. And I can tell you a thousand things, winning 500 banknotes that the Gipuzkoa player gave him and a thousand other things.” The UCO, which identifies the “from Gipuzkoa” as Joseba Antxon Alonso, has incorporated another exchange of messages from Koldo García with a third person, in which the latter asks him who his “bosses” are. And the minister’s former advisor replies: “There are only two, (José Luis) and Mr. Santos.”
“Spending money from party to party.” The agents added to their reports another message that Koldo García sent on March 30, 2018 to his wife: “Santos’ horses with gui (sic) in Madrid, from party to party spending money (…) How they disgust me, make me bitter about life.” At that time, Cerdán had already landed in Madrid after Sánchez’s return to Ferraz. Once again, the agents conclude that “gui” is Alonso.
“The best thing is that you can hear me with the Navarrese.” Another of the accused entrepreneurs, José Ruz, of Levantina Engineering and Construction (LIC), wrote via WhatsApp to Koldo García on March 16, 2022, when Ábalos and his advisor were already out of the ministry: “Good morning boss, I think the best thing is for you to sit me down with the Navarrese and for me to speak to him directly. In addition to seeing him today and telling him that it’s okay for innocents to be hurt by everything, because it’s not good for the cattle. What’s in it for me the “advantage of having people outside the dance”. According to the agents, Ruz called Cerdán “the Navarrese” and in these messages he complained about having “removed” companies from public projects. “The term ‘cattle’ was used as an agreed language to refer to political parties, and in this case to the PSOE,” underlines the Guardia Civil.
“Spend and spend.” Agents linked the use of the Servinabar credit card to Cerdán and his family. And, to strengthen their evidence, they reproduce a message that Joseba Antxon Alonso receives from his wife on September 9, 2021. “Spend and spend. And restaurants, weekend after alternate weekend. That’s enough for him. All the good, the best,” he complained: “La Paqui. All the saleswomen at El Corte Inglés know her.” These words spread like wildfire in the party: “There’s nothing else being talked about except the expenses of the Paqui card,” says a member of the government.
Among the socialist ranks there are those who await the imminent UCO report on Cerdán’s heritage with the feeling of having “another disappointment”, according to a territorial leader. “You can imagine anything,” he complains, although he disagrees with Ferraz and La Moncloa’s official version that the case was closed. Indeed, many eyes are now turning to Ábalos and Koldo García, who will be summoned to the Supreme Court next Thursday to decide whether to remain at liberty pending trial for the part of the summary focused on the irregular awarding of mask contracts. “Now, the one who can go to jail is José Luis. If this happens, one goes out and the other goes in, we cannot last a whole week without the two secretaries of the Organization being free from the (2017) primaries until this summer,” says a provincial secretary. “Stability at the moment is not what we have,” says ironically a member of the federal leadership, who “restlessly” awaits the next judicial derivative “which will once again test the nerves of the entire party”.
