The confrontation of the judges with the government acquires a new dimension and reaches the crown. The political and judicial right has taken advantage of the official act of the course of the courts held this Friday to promote a new offensive against the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, and the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz. The main representatives of the Guest PP, with Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Isabel Díaz Ayuso at the head, have declined to attend an event chaired by King Felipe VI, while some conservative associations and vowels of the Judiciary have claimed to exclude not only the attorney general, who is about to sit on the bench to be tried for revelation of secrets, also to the executive members themselves.
Sánchez reiterated last Monday in an interview in TVE an idea that he had previously expressed: that a minority of judges use the courts to “do politics.” He repeated the statement the next day, this time in the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’. The reaction of the judicial associations, except the progressive, was to accuse the president of the Government of missing respect for the judges for attributing political motivations. Feijóo also raised the tone and said that Sanchez is “a danger to Spain” for “declare war” to the judges.
The PP announced on Wednesday afternoon Feijóo’s decision to plant the State Chief in that act. At first, the game alleged agenda problems. Specifically, “a previously acquired commitment” that coincides in date with the institutional act held at the headquarters of the Supreme Court. That previous “commitment” is none other than a rally organized by Ayuso in Arganda del Rey, a municipality in southeast of Madrid.
The cause that has the Attorney General on the edge of the bench starts from the alleged filtration of confidential information precisely from the Ayuso couple, Alberto González Amador, who faces requests of up to four years in prison for two crimes against the public hacienda in competition with a crime of documentary falsehood. Yesterday, shortly before the announcement of Feijóo’s proposal, Ayuso’s couple presented the last resort that separates him from the trial.
This Thursday Feijóo modified the chronology and assured in press statements that the invitation of the supreme came “in July”, almost at the same time that the court itself confirmed “the decision to process the attorney general.” “On July 30 or 31 we communicate [al Supremo] that we understood that our presence did not proceed, ”he added. And he concluded:“ Additionally, we proposed the start date of the course in Madrid for that day. ”That is, the official act was summoned prior to the PP of Madrid. Feijóo justified his absence, in addition, because he understands that“ within the constitutional functions of the head of the opposition is not to attend ”this event.“ It is not a mandate, ”he added.
Beyond the fact that the Constitution does not even mention the figure of “HEAD OF THE OPPOSITION”, Feijóo is not the only leader of the PP that will be absent this Friday. The popular have declined that the greatest representatives of the institutions where they govern either. Ayuso herself will not attend, who has sent her advisor to the Presidency, Justice and Interior, Miguel Ángel García and the president of the Madrid Assembly, Enrique Ossorio.
The president of the Senate and the fourth authority of the State, Pedro Rollán, who has alleged “a family issue” will not go to the act, although he also informed the Supreme Court of his absence already in July. The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, who did not warn until Wednesday, closes the payroll.
All of them have reiterated in the last hours the usual statements against the government. “I cannot validate the president’s attacks and defamations to certain judges,” Feijóo said Thursday. “The presence of the attorney general is a provocation,” he added. “They are not up to it, they do not deserve to be in the charges,” said Almeida. They also had words against Bolaños, which they accused of not defending the judges. The presence of the three became Thursday the reason for the absence of the PP.
The reaction of the Judiciary
The almost accompanied reaction of the Conservative Associations of Judges and Prosecutors and the members of the Judiciary chosen at the initiative of the PP. The head of the Spanish right himself verbalized him in his appearance before the media in a children’s school in Guadalajara.
In the first hour on Thursday, the main associations of the judicial right affirmed in a statement that García Ortiz’s assistance to the act of the Supreme Court “constitutes an act of contempt for the basic principles of the rule of law and the head of the State itself” and asked him not to go “out of respect” to the king and those who integrate the judicial and fiscal careers.
Hours later it transcended the offensive of the vowels of the CGPJ chosen at the initiative of the PP, who claimed by letter to the president of the body, Isabel Perelló, to ask the Attorney General to be absent from the act, in addition to requesting that the Minister Bolaños of the Supreme Strays be removed in which King Felipe VI and the rest of high authorities will be located.
After days of conversations in which the idea of not attending, the conservative group opted for the “unique possible way” to show their discomfort without bothering the head of the State, affirms a source of the judicial right. And that despite the fact that his letter directly involved the King by expressly claiming the president to inform her of the “situation for the proper institutional coordination.”
The monarch himself received Wednesday at the Palacio de la Zarzuela to the Attorney General, who gave his memory in an institutional act held every September before the opening of the courts. In their letter, the vowels requested the veto of García Ortiz given the “current circumstances”, in reference to their processing. But the request did not stay there. They also claimed the president of the CGPJ to make visible their “rejection of unfair and unjustified attacks on the judges by the Executive preventing the Minister of Justice from occupying a place in the stages.” They referred, at this point, Sánchez’s words about the judges.
Judicial sources question the movement of these vowels due to the complex institutional situation in which it leaves the president of the CGPJ and the Supreme, to which a progressive sensitivity was attributed when it was chosen but that has avoided positioning itself with the left in the most controversial issues. “It is a very ungrateful role,” says a source from the progressive group.
At the close of this edition, the letter had not had a public response from Perelló. In the conservative group they assume that the president will display this Friday a purely institutional speech, although they expect some veiled allusion that can be interpreted as a criticism of the statements of Sánchez that were later backed by Bolaños.
It is common for the president to make generic allusions to the importance of judicial independence, although without referring to concrete issues. Last June, after the government framed the cause of the attorney general in the offensive “of some judges” against Sánchez, Perelló said that “questioning” “concrete judges” is “improper” of a democracy, although he avoided referring to that allusion of the Executive.
In the progressive bloc, meanwhile, they hope Perelló make a measured speech, which contributes to calm the spirits and value the work done in this first year of mandate. Members of this sector believe that, otherwise, the president “would enter a dynamic that will not benefit.” The majority of the vowels of this block subscribed on Thursday a letter in which they supported the presence of García Ortiz and Bolaños and claimed “constitutional loyalty.”
Despite the information that the last days have addressed the possibility of some type of proposal that shows the discomfort for the assistance of the Attorney General to the act without a displacement to the king, all the sources consulted discard obvious actions of Boicot. “With the letter of the vowels, everything that could be done has been done,” summarizes a source of the judicial right.
The king, warned on Wednesday
Feijóo said Thursday that, in addition to notifying the Supreme Court, he informed “La Casa”, in reference to Felipe VI, who presides over the act of starting the judicial year and on behalf of who is given justice in Spain, according to the Constitution. The King’s house confirms that, indeed, they were informed of the absence. But, according to Zarzuela, the PP warned Wednesday, the same day the statement was sent to the media.
And there comes the official reaction of the King’s house. “We are not going to comment,” they point out from Zarzuela to eldiario.es. “The king chairs the solemn act because it is his obligation. The PP was contacted yesterday [por el miércoles] And he communicated that he was not going to attend, ”the same sources set out.
Feijóo struggled Thursday to show in public his “absolute respect” and “loyalty” to Felipe VI. But it is not the first time that the leader of the PP is absent from an act chaired by the king. Last June, the event organized by the Royal ELCANO Institute to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Spain’s adhesion to the EU was erased. He also alleged Pedro Sánchez’s presence as a reason to plant the head of the State.
Source: www.eldiario.es
