The agendas of Leire Díez, the PSOE’s plumber accused of attempting to extort judges, prosecutors, and civil guards investigating Pedro Sánchez’s circle, contain numerous passages in which, allegedly, the Socialist Party and Moncloa intervened in private companies. The most detailed ones concern the attempted takeover of Prisa, publisher of the newspaper El País, with the aim of unseating its president, Joseph Oughourlian. Díez says that the editorial line in the newspaper had been set by “P.S.”, in a possible allusion to the President of the Executive.
“The idea is for Telefónica to buy Prisa and for Contreras to assume the presidency,” wrote Leire Díez. The PSOE’s plumber refers to the government’s pressure operation for Prisa’s allied shareholders to take control of the publisher to the detriment of the Franco-Armenian businessman. “Contreras” is José Miguel Contreras, an executive linked to Sánchez and to whom the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Óscar López, has just awarded a television channel, precisely alongside the other shareholders with whom he was allied in Prisa.
Díez points out that when Oughourlian “lands in Prisa, he reaches an agreement with P.S.: the editorial line is set by P.S. and the strategy by Oughourlian.” However, everything changes with the “entry of Contreras” who takes on the “leading role” alongside Óscar López. Specifically, the accused details a plan by López to force Joseph Oughourlian to sell his stake to Vivendi, a French communication multinational and also a Prisa shareholder.
In another note, the plumber elaborates on “Contreras’s prominence in the media but not in business.” She also cites Adolf Utor, president of the shipping company Balearia, a shareholder of Prisa and also of the television channel awarded by Óscar López to Contreras. Regardless of the manuscript’s accuracy, the truth is that Prisa’s president ended up resisting government pressure and removing Contreras and the other executives aligned with Moncloa, as well as the director of El País, today’s TVE Telediario2 presenter Pepa Bueno.
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A final page, dated January 2025, suggests more pressure on Joseph Oughourlian to leave the publisher. One is to force Indra to buy Hispasat, of which Prisa’s president is also a shareholder. “Sell your share,” says Díez. The operation was carried out, but Joseph Oughourlian did not leave Prisa. Regarding Telefónica’s involvement, the plumber says that “Murtra does not have the capacity” to lead the company and that “Escribano also lacks the ability to run Indra. He has no university degree or knowledge of English.”
A few days earlier, Pedro Sánchez had forced the dismissal of José María Álvarez-Pallete from the telecommunications company to place Marc Murtra, who until that day had directed Indra, at the helm. Ángel Escribano, who has recently been removed due to disagreements with Moncloa, replaced him in the Defense company.
