Gonzalez deputy faces grilling
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Your support makes all the difference.NARCIS SERRA, the deputy Prime Minister of Spain and Felipe Gonzalez's right-hand man, faces close questioning from opposition deputies today after being called before parliament to clarify his relationship with Luis Roldan, the former chief of the Guardia Civil, now in hiding.
Mr Serra's increasingly precarious tenure as deputy premier is seen as Mr Gonzalez's last line of defence as corruption scandals point to at least negligence by Mr Gonzalez, if not complicity in less-than- honourable practices.
Mr Serra, who as Defence Minister successfully pushed for Mr Roldan's candidature as Guardia Civil chief in 1986, will be pressed about reports that he and Mr Gonzalez spied on Mario Conde, a leading banker, in 1992 using Mr Roldan and the US investigative agency, Kroll Associates. Mr Conde appeared bound for politics on the centre-right but mysteriously dropped out of political involvement towards the end of 1992.
Mr Serra has denied press reports that he ordered Mr Roldan, wanted on suspicion of building a personal fortune from illegal commissions and unaccountable funds, to spy on Mr Conde, then chairman of the big Banesto bank. Such reports were false and irrelevant, he said.
Mr Roldan, from hiding, has said that Mr Serra ordered the investigation of Mr Conde which the then Guardia Civil chief entrusted to Kroll Associates without the knowledge of Spain's Interior Minister. Mr Roldan said he delivered copies of the Kroll report to Mr Serra, Mr Gonzalez and Carlos Solchaga, then Economy Minister, and paid Kroll with 100m pesetas ( pounds 500,000) from the 'secret funds', delivered in suitcases.
The case has come down to Mr Serra's word against Mr Roldan's. Mr Gonzalez has so far avoided a direct denial. 'How can you believe the words of a fugitive from justice?' asked Mr Serra. 'Let him give himself up and tell all he knows.' Kroll Associates, as always, declined to confirm or deny the reports, saying secrecy is a condition of its contracts.
A parliamentary commission investigating Mr Roldan's seven-year tenure as head of the paramilitary Guardia Civil ends its hearings today. Its work bordered on farce yesterday as members leaked vastly divergent versions of the hearings.
Interviu this week published pictures of what it called an orgy involving Mr Roldan and five other scantily dressed people. After days of publicity that said Mr Roldan's 'private parts' would be revealed, the magazine included one photograph revealing a patch of pubic area. The magazine sold out for the second consecutive week.
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