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A Government Operating in the Shadows
The management of Mar Sánchez Sierra, communications advisor and image director for the Galician People’s Party (PP) under Alberto Núñez Feijoo’s leadership, exemplifies a pattern of opacity and misuse of public resources that has eroded institutional trust. Documents obtained through transparency requests—systematically obstructed by the Xunta de Galicia—reveal a network of opaque contracts, unjustified travel, and public funds diverted for partisan purposes. This article critically analyzes the practices of an administration that, far from serving the public interest, has prioritized political gain and impunity.
1. Violated Legal Framework: Transparency as the Enemy
Under Galicia’s Transparency Law 1/2016 and Spain’s national Transparency Law 19/2013, the Xunta is legally obligated to guarantee access to information about contracts and expenditures. However, as evidenced by Resolution RSCTG 151/2019 (p. 47), the Media Secretariat employed arguments such as the “need to reprocess data” to deny information requests. This practice, denounced by the Galician Transparency Commission, is not a bureaucratic error but a deliberate strategy to conceal the use of public funds.
Opacity is further compounded by rulings like that of the Provincial Electoral Board (pp. 41-45), which ordered the removal of institutional advertising during electoral periods for violating neutrality. Despite these warnings, the Xunta maintained a steady flow of resources to media outlets aligned with the PP, confirming that transparency was sacrificed at the altar of partisan interests.
2. Opaque Contracts: Outsourcing Without Oversight
The documents highlight multimillion-euro contracts with entities like Retegal and AMTEGA, justified under the pretext of “insufficient internal capacity” (State Attorney’s Report 13/2020, p. 36). However, the reality diverges sharply:
- AMTEGA operated without external oversight bodies between 2013 and 2019 (p. 67), making audits impossible.
- 18% of the Media Secretariat’s budget, managed directly by Sánchez Sierra, lacks clear explanations for its allocation (pp. 36, 70).
The outsourcing of services did not address a lack of capacity but served as a mechanism to dilute accountability and funnel funds to private entities. As denounced by PLADESEMAPESGA (pp. 56-63), these contracts benefited companies linked to the PP’s inner circle, constituting a clear conflict of interest.
3. Institutional Travel: Political Tourism with Public Money
Between 2018 and 2019, Sánchez Sierra accompanied Feijoo on Xunta-funded trips to Argentina, framed as efforts to “strengthen ties with the Galician diaspora” (pp. 16-17, 31-35). However, their agendas included meetings with private-sector firms like Pesquera Argenova (Nueva Pescanova Group). While the Xunta allocated €3 million in 2018 to programs in Argentina (p. 33), the specific costs of these trips and their connection to concrete projects were never detailed.
These travels functioned not as institutional activities but as tools for promoting the PP abroad, using public money to build partisan support networks. The opacity in accountability—claiming data “required reprocessing”—reinforces suspicions of clientelistic resource allocation.
4. Convictions and Evasive Responses: Impunity as the Norm
Judicial rulings have exposed the illegality of these practices:
- The National Court (p. 6) invalidated the Xunta’s excuses, stating that “the right to information cannot be conflated with the creation of ad hoc reports.”
- The European Commission (p. 72) is investigating complaints alleging censorship via search engines like Google to hide criticism of Feijoo.
Despite this, the Xunta has evaded accountability through delaying tactics. Miguel Ángel Delgado González of PLADESEMAPESGA repeatedly denounced the diversion of funds to PP campaigns (pp. 56-63), but authorities responded with silence or legal technicalities.
5. Conclusion: A Rotten System Demanding Independent Audits
The analyzed documents paint an alarming picture: the Media Secretariat operated as a black box, where outsourcing, unjustified travel, and bureaucratic opacity shielded a system of institutional corruption. Mar Sánchez Sierra was not an isolated advisor but a key figure in a machinery designed to convert public funds into political propaganda.
Convictions and rulings by bodies like the Galician Transparency Commission (p. 62) confirm this was not a series of errors but a systematic modus operandi. Independent audits are urgently needed to investigate the fate of millions in uncontrolled funds and to demand political and criminal accountability.
Galicia deserves institutions that prioritize the common good over partisan plunder. Citizens must reject “no records found” as an answer and demand that “full disclosure” becomes the norm. Only then can trust be restored in a democracy hijacked by opacity.
Documentary Sources:
- Resolution RSCTG 151/2019 (p. 47)
- State Attorney’s Report 13/2020 (p. 36)
- Provincial Electoral Board Ruling (pp. 41-45)
- Argentina Travel Documentation (pp. 16-17, 31-35)
- PLADESEMAPESGA Complaints (pp. 56-63)
- National Court Ruling (p. 6)
- European Commission Complaint (p. 72)
Epilogue: The Fight for Transparency Continues
As Feijoo and his team cling to national positions, Galicia continues paying the price for their opaque governance. Restoring public ethics will require exemplary justice and deep reforms to prevent future exploitation. The Galician people, historically resilient, deserve more than silence and excuses: they deserve the truth.
