Esther Mucientes Madrid
Madrid
Updated Wednesday, February 14, 2024-21:46
Chronicle This is how the documentary of Little Nicolás was created
"I'm going to tell you the story of the person who reached the top and who should never have been there." With this phrase begins
Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias
, better known for
Little Nicolás
or simply
Fran
, the documentary that, together with the production company
CAPA España
(iZen group), tries to shed some light on one of the most surprising, curious and incredible cases that have been experienced in Spain: the astonishing "reality" of the rise and fall of
Little Nicolás
, the Spanish rogue who put the Government in check.
(P)Ícarus: Little Nicolás
is the name of the documentary that Netflix premieres today and to which CAPA Spain has dedicated more than a year of research, more than 100 hours of interviews and more than 35,000 pages read corresponding to six different procedures. The data may seem exaggerated, but when you see the three chapters that make up
(P)Ìcaro: Little Nicolás
, one understands so many hours dedicated to an investigation whose journey becomes complicated at every step. "It is an x-ray of the cases that orbit around
El Pequeno Nicolás
," they say from the production company. And they are not few.
Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias
, a young man who at just 14 years old went from public relations in a nightclub to rubbing shoulders with politicians, businessmen, secret services and even the Royal Family.
A life of business, travel, seduction, palaces, commissions and parties until his arrest is ordered in 2014
, at which point the documentary begins. How is it possible that
Francisco Nicolás
will reach where he arrived in so few years, from 15 to 20? is one of the questions that the series tries to answer. Does he get it?
"What the son of such a minister heard at a meal he sold to Fran for 200 euros and then he sold it for 2,000"
Jose Manuel Villarejo
The framework shown in
(P)Ìcaro: Little Nicolás
is such that even some of the interviewees
- 21 people in total -
doubt that what they themselves relate can be understood. Because? Because that story that fell on society like a bomb in 2014 remains today one of the great urban legends of Spain. Is everything that
Francisco Nicolás
tells is real ? Who lies?
Did he work for the CNI or not?
Who used him?
Why does the entire structure of the State fall on him?
These are many of the questions that the former commissioner and businessman,
José Manuel Villarejo
, -one of the testimonies in the documentary- tries to answer.
In fact, it is the statements of Villarejo,
"the boss of the sewers"
in the words of
Francisco Nicolás
, that are the easiest to understand in a documentary that, like
Nicolay
, is often difficult to follow: "
Little Nicolás
does not He was a James Bond agent. He was part of what is called barrage information, which is
recruiting the children of ministers and members of high society
to give you information. What the son of such a minister heard in a food
sold it to Fran for 200 euros and then he sold it for 2,000
."
Even so, this does not explain the unknowns that have always surrounded
Little Nicholas
and the
Nicolay case
. For example, the series addresses the presence of
Francisco Nicolás
at the
Coronation of Felipe VI
. It is true that messages are shown that
Little Nicolás
had with King Juan Carlos after his abdication, and the investigation carried out by two journalists for months for
(P)Ícaro
even leads to the unpublished testimony of Catalina Hoffman, the entrepreneur who entered with
Francisco Nicholas
at the Coronation. She tells one version, he tells another, and the evidence refutes one and does not make it clear what
Francisco Nicolás
was doing there. Because each testimony, including that of Fran himself, is a compendium of intertwined versions in which everyone tries to deny each statement made by
Francisco Nicolás
. What everyone agrees on, including himself, is that arrogance, pride, vanity and greed broke the bank. "a smart boy, a scoundrel who saw the opportunity to attract attention," he says of the former Director of Communication of the Royal Family between 2012 and 2014,
Javier Ayuso
.
"My thing was power; an endless drug," says the protagonist during the docuseries. A kid who, at only 14 years old, signed up "the cool ones" from each school for his
business
.
He had a team of 60 people
. A young man who made his mother take him to the FAES, the foundation linked to the PP, where he became, according to his version, a key player. "A person who fills buses has a lot of power. A 60-year-old woman at a rally is not the same as hundreds of young people. And
that led them to suck me up
," says Francisco Nicolás.
A young man who instead of going out drinking went to meetings with politicians
. Until he got so close to the sun that his wings burned. "(...) If he put his feet on the table it was like a sign that dad had arrived. He did it constantly so they could see that if the child put his feet on the table it was because he was in charge," he declares.
"He thought I was God and he got involved (...) He was the fucking master. He saw me as the youngest future minister of Democracy"
Francisco Nicolas
Along with dozens of unpublished images, the testimony of his mother, of businessmen, such as
Javier de la Ros
a, of journalists, of commissioners, such as
Marcelino Martín-Blas
, the chief investigator of
Operation Nicolay
, the directors of
(P)Ícaro
,
Arantza Sánchez
and
Adolfo Moreno
, try to tell the story of
El Pequeno Nicolás
"with journalistic rigor" but, at the same time, maintaining "a fresh and enjoyable story", which fits perfectly with that image of Lazarillo de Tormes of the 21st century who has always accompanied
Francisco Nicolás
.
Although the documentary continues to leave many questions in the air, the one it does answer is that
Little Nicolás
was much more than a simple rogue. For some he was
a getter of information
, for others,
a fool
, for others a child who believed his own fantasy, for him... a god: "He thought I was God and he got involved (...)
He was the fucking master
. "I saw myself as the youngest future minister of Democracy."
"He was doing what the elders asked him because he believed that what they did was good because everyone did it," explains one of
Francisco Nicolás
' friends during the documentary. He himself corroborates this with many of his statements in the series: "The threads were moving in the Real Madrid box. They were not moving in Genoa (...) Once I asked Florentino (Pérez) which party it was from and he answered something that stayed with me forever:
"I am not a member of any party. "I am from power
."
Although there are images, documentation, messages, even recordings, everyone denies
Little Nicolás
or everyone wants to dismantle his versions.
"He was a rogue, but there were many people behind him
," many of those interviewed acknowledge. For
Francisco Nicolás
everything was in "the sewers": "I have been close to the sewers because I have smelled the shit that was there." After his arrest, after the opening of an investigation to study "the irregular behavior of a young man", that young man became a star, everything fell on him at once, fame, the press, justice, exile...
" He has money, he has cash, Little Nicolás
. "