“They have power, they are not isolated or exalted people, but people protected by the whole establishment.” The words of prosecutor Josu Izaguirre could have passed through the massive walls of the Palace of Justice of Álava, located on the avenue of Gasteiz and extended especially for the occasion, to the gardens of Albia of Bilbao, when the trial of the De Miguel case began. The prosecutor's argument is like a ballistic missile against the speech they have made in Sabin Etxea, and it shows the tactical attitude that both are taking throughout the trial.

A case of corruption in the Spanish State has cast the rulers, following the approval in Congress of the motion by the opposition. Mariano Rajoy did not expect that two weeks earlier, after the procedure of the state’s general budgets, he would find himself in a trance: to go out into the street for corruption. The PNV has been the one that has attacked pp for “political ethics and responsibility”, in the words of Aitor Esteban, since, according to the Jeltzale deputy, the sentence of the plot Gürtel has been a “milestone”.

Paradoxically, in the case of De Miguel, who has also been called the Basque Gürtel, the shadow of the PNV can be seen everywhere. Its leaders have tried to separate the case from the party, saying that there is no trap here that finances the party – unlike the Valencian PP – and the lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, said that this is an “isolated” fact, that corruption “does not match our culture and political and social values.” In addition, they demanded that the PNV members involved in the case surrender their respective affiliate cards.

But the reality is, you ask the old tenant of the Moncloa. Why did it take ten months to hand over the cards? If we list those involved in the De Miguel case, we will realize that the alleged corruption case has reached the Jeltzale structure of Álava (see table on page 27). For example, in this list are the most prominent members of the Araba Buru Batzar: Alfredo de Miguel, former Deputy Foral who was in the center of the network, very close to the former president of the PNV Alavés, Iñaki Gerenabarrena, Aitor Telleria and Koldo Otxandiano, as well as those who were mayors and officials of the Basque Government. Jose at a round table organized by Hala Bedi

As the journalist Manuel Cámara explained, “the PNV was the expression that collected everything”.

“What will we do with this idiot?”

The sessions of the Palace of Justice of Álava will last until at least next November. Among the 26 accused there are a total of 11 co-done crimes, one of money laundering, another of documentary falsehood and another of prevarication. The Prosecutor's Office asks for the defendants 439 years in prison: For Alfredo de Miguel there are a total of 54 years, and for the others there are requests for penalties between 32 and 4 years. The sessions will involve around 150 witnesses and the opinion of more than 20 experts in the area is expected. The long duration of the trial has caused his media influence to blur at some points.

Surely, the main witness ' s statement has attracted the most attention in the meetings held so far: Ainhoa Alberdi, entrepreneur. It was he who brought the case to light in 2009. Alfredo de Miguel and Aitor Telleria sued the prosecutor of Álava of a commission of 100,000 euros for awarding the works of expansion of the technological park of Miñano to his company Urbanorma Consulting and gave the prosecutor of Álava some recordings of conversations to prove it. In them you can hear the phrase of Jon Iñaki Etxaburu, former partner of Alberdi and Alavese businessman, who says that the commission “was within the normal”, which serves to detect the extent of this type of conduct. Pulling this cord, EUR 700,000 has been involved in commissions, 16 million irregular operations and a sterile urban operation worth EUR 65 million.

"What will we do with this idiot?" asked by e-mail the manager of Miñano, Alfonso Arriola, when he passed the bill for Alberdi's works. The entrepreneur has also denounced an attempt at extortion by refusing to pay a commission when they came to ask for money from their father, Juan Antonio Alberdi, a PNV militant. From there, moreover, the witness states that he had a "veto" in other works.

Beware! The Anti-Corruption Association of Álava concentrated before the court to show its support “for the revenge, pressure and personal disqualifications it has suffered”. She has been under medical treatment since Alberdi filed a complaint with the Prosecutor's Office for sexual assault. At the time of his statement, he has needed special measures to protect his privacy, although the media have looked at a witness and not at the accused and suspected criminals. Alberdi explained that he was "persecuted". Defense lawyers have asked for many hours about their state of health, their alleged problems with the treasury, their relationship with the prosecutor… to the point of mocking in some cases; the journalist of Iker Rioja El Diario.es has described it in his long and precise chronicles.

These lawyers are well known about the PNV: Gonzalo Susaeta, from the office Cuatrecasas, Javier Beramendi – who has worked in Bravo, Cabieces… –, Ricardo Palacio – also in the case of Bravo –, Eneko Goenaga, Jesús Villegas, Carlos Chacón… many of them have held positions in the PNV. Everything seems to indicate that the party presided over by Andoni Ortuzar has made available to the accused all his legal apparatus. A curious way to “clean the relationship with the PNV” of the defendants, as Urkullu said.

They have lost their affiliate card, but some have lost their public salary: Alfredo de Miguel himself has given him a position in Hazi, because he has "the labor rights in force", according to the director of the Fundación.Llamdrew attention to the hug between De Miguel and the spokesman of the PNV in the Basque Parliament, Joseba Egibar, in 2011, and also drew attention to the words of the latter against the examining magistrate in 2015, suggesting policies he drew conclusions. Striking and curious, like everything related to this case.

17 March 2010: arrests

Ainhoa Alberdi bought an Olympus brand recorder in a store to be "protected" from the pressures of Alfredo de Miguel and Aitor Telleria. But knowing that his father was involved, he decided to hand over the audios and e-mail to the prosecutor of Álava. It was December 2009 and a few months later, on March 17, the Ertzaintza launched an operation to arrest eight people, including De Miguel, Telleria and Otxandiano, and made numerous records in private homes and offices, as well as in a gastronomic society.

The operation was ordered by the judge of the Court of Investigation No. 4 of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Roberto Ramos, after the Alavés prosecutor advised the anti-corruption prosecutor of Madrid. There was a terrible earthquake in the Diputación de Álava – the EA party, which sent along with the PNV, also used the word “treason” – and in the Basque Parliament a commission was also set up to investigate the case: The final opinion imputes “political responsibilities” to the positions of the PNV.

For his part, Ramos published in 2015, after five years of instruction, his indictment against a total of 26 people. In a 183-page document, the judge notes that Alfredo de Miguel created a network of "screens" of companies "together with others charged with political or administrative responsibilities" to obtain money and commissions through irregular public awards. In the car, Asier Arzallus, son of the historic Jeltzale leader Xabier Arzallus, is declared out of trial for not being able to judge from the penal code the “dubious” award to a company of the network of De Miguel.

The defendants ' defenses have called for the trial to be suspended until the eve of the trial on the grounds that the submitted audios are not valid and that they are not annulled. But the court presided over by Jaime Tapia has dismissed the petition and recalled that there is more evidence.

A granate notebook, counterfeit documents…

At the end of half the sessions, the trial has already given enough age to write a novel. The chronicles of journalist Iker Rioja – in that case he has written the book Inside the Normal (Inside the Normal) – do not have a word to spare and through them we can learn the smallest details of the case.

In addition to the evidence provided by Alberdi, the Ertzainas found in a cell of the house of Koldo Otxandiano a notebook of colored garnet that serves to know how the alleged commissions were charged. The former member of the ABB pointed manually on the quadriculated papers bearing the coat of arms of the General Boards of Álava which was most convenient for the companies to pay: For example, one can read “Work 4% Kataia”, indicating that one of the pseudopaw companies of Kataia Consulting De Miguel had to collect this award percentage in black.

In total, there are about 25 companies created by this network for fraud, mostly on behalf of family members. One of them, Errexal, S.L., received “mordiscos” for works carried out by the companies Lapubs de Labarca and Zigoitia Loizate. Loizate was well known for having obtained public awards in the construction of Álava, and its owner, Jon Iñaki Echaburu, is charged. Many companies linked to De Miguel did not have their own staff nor were they included in the Social Security, such as the company Eskamelo SL, to which the former leader of the PNV obtained €65,000, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Another fraudulent mechanism was the collection of work not carried out by the Department of Youth of the Basque Government, for a total amount of EUR 210,000. The Director of Youth, Xabier Sánchez Robles (PNV), said that the companies Kataia, Errexal and Ortzi Muga were “on the finger”: “He took advantage of his position to benefit these companies,” says the processing car.

To justify the dozens of works awarded, the former Jeltzale Director of Youth has presented to the judge documents with the Government’s registration stamp, but Rioja has demonstrated in Eldiarionorte that they are false, unregistered or plagiarized – on one of the stamps, for example, appears on 29 February 2007, although that day never existed.

Unbuilt Zambrana Polygon

The case under consideration consists of twelve parts, all of which are impossible to describe here. The urban operation of Zambrana is one of the most important because of its size. The Catalan construction company received a fee of EUR 3 million for the award of an industrial estate that had never been built in this municipality. According to the prosecutor, the plot was directed by Iosu Arruti through the company Sidepur, which subsequently paid it to the network of De Miguel. The former mayor of the PNV of Zambrana, María Justina Angulo, who claims for her four years in prison, for alleged irregularities in the recalification of the land on which the polygon was to be built, is also involved.

Reforms of personal chalets paid by the businessmen in their pocket, capricious awards from the Diputación de Álava, recalifiable lands bought with black money from commissions… There is still much to see and know in the greatest case of corruption that has been judged in Euskal Herria.

PNV, a large family

Josu Izagirre's rigour is total and the Basque Government has been exposed to the prosecutor in Álava, as his lawyer did not ask questions until the fourteenth session of the plenary session. On the contrary, the experts of the Ertzaintza have firmly defended their work and have maintained moments of tension with the lawyers of the defendants. The Provincial Council of Bizkaia, in the hands of the PNV, is also on the bench of the indictment for tax offences committed by several companies.

What political reading can you do with this picture? We must not forget that the power struggles between the families that are part of the PNV hit the party’s structure in Álava, just as the case of corruption arose. In the State of Emergency debate, investigative journalist Ahoztar Zelaieta has differentiated between the “independentist” sector and the one that “talks to the corrupt pp”. In his view, the De Miguel case has been a “firewall” to oppose the independence sector of the PNV of Álava, in which the political analysts have placed the environment of Gerenabarrena, because, in short, “it is a small story”.

What if Ainhoa Alberdi, when in 2009 he was ordered to “pass through the ballot box”, ignored it and not told the prosecutor’s office? Could we have news of De Miguel today? And what if Ainhoa Alberdi had more, with the courage to pull the face of those who have ruled Euskal Herria politically and economically for so many years?