Congress increases controls after the 'Mediator case' and forces deputies to register all visits they receive

The scandal of the

and the confirmation of the illicit use of Congress by PSOE deputy

,

, for his corrupt activities have led the Lower House to take harsher measures to hinder this type of manipulation.

From now on the deputies will be obliged to record all the visits that they authorize in an Excel specifying the name and surname, ID and "observations".

In this way, from now on there will be a more orderly control and an easier to consult registry of the people who pass through the Congress at the request of a deputy.

It is not that before they did not have to notify who was going, but that information was done in a dispersed way through loose emails.

The fact is that Fuentes Curbelo allegedly took advantage of his status as deputy to allow businessmen to hold meetings that are under suspicion by the Justice for the possible commission of corruption crimes that are still being investigated.

With this scandal hitting the PSOE, the deputies and parliamentary groups have received a circular from the Special Commissioner of Congress in which they are informed that a "new procedure for the communication of data from people outside the Chamber" is being established.

That notice, to which this newspaper has had access, specifies that as of March 1 it comes into operation.

"When requests are made in this regard [visits], please include them in the attached Excel document, respecting the cells in the established manner, and notify the Special Police Station via email [...] by the deputies, parliamentary groups or personnel of the Congress of Deputies that corresponds", it says.

Excel has five columns: "first name, last name 1, last name 2, document and remarks".

In line with the

, the PSOE spokesman in Congress, Patxi López, has taken the opportunity to underline the importance of approving a bill that is still in the process of being processed to regulate interest groups in the Chamber, in order to give greater transparency to the meetings that the deputies have in said headquarters.

In any case, López himself has recognized that even with this law, "from the outside" no one can control who any deputy meets with or not.

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• PSOE

• Congress of Deputies

• Mediator Case