“This judge has us accustomed to always leaning in this same direction, which has an important political implication, and usually comes up at sensitive political moments.” This is how the third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition and the Challenge Demographic, Teresa Ribera, in an interview on TVE about the judge of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón, who yesterday, in an order in which he rejected a new appeal from the Prosecutor’s Office against the Tsunami Democràtic case for terrorism, warned that this accusation against the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont and the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, is increasingly “entrenched.”
Following these words from Ribera, sources from the Moncloa and some ministers such as the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, or the Minister of Agriculture. Luis Planas, have come forward to try to clarify them. Government sources have assured that the Executive will defend judges and magistrates from any interference in their work, “also from attempts to do so by the PP”, a party that has described as “extreme seriousness” for a vice president to accuse a judge. of “prevaricating.”
However, the second vice president of the Government and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, has supported Ribera’s statements in statements to journalists, assuring that certain judicial resolutions “agree” to be approved precisely in “times of concrete political relevance.”
After asking “to respect the fundamental principle of coexistence and the Constitution such as the separation of powers and the exercise of power, including respect for the judicial power”, Teresa Ribera pointed out that this “does not prevent us from seeing that there are some people who hold this institutional representation of the judicial power that have a certain desire to always speak in the same direction and at a particularly opportune moment”, in a veiled allusion to the coincidence of the judge’s order with the processing of the Amnesty law in Congress and specifically to the negotiation between the PSOE and the pro-independence parties of the latter’s amendments that seek to shield the criminal oblivion of their leaders by trying to include in the law the accusations of terrorism.
“I would be very cautious regarding the way in which this judge is speaking, since we are accustomed to him always leaning in this same direction, which has an important political implication, and usually comes up at sensitive political moments” , the vice president indicated below, who this weekend will join the PSOE executive as a member without portfolio.
Asked if she was questioning the judge’s criteria, specifically if he was being guided by political criteria, Ribera insisted that “the newspaper archive shows that it is always very correct in the dates and in the sensitivity of the dates where they appear.” these statements” to remember without mentioning that the judge of the National Court reactivated the Tsunami Democràtic case for terrorism against Puigdemont and Rovira just when the amnesty law and the investiture of Pedro Sánchez were being negotiated, which took place ten days later, after being stopped for a long time. It was the same judge who requested a report from the Civil Guard a few days before, which he received quickly and served to support the accusations while also admitting the appearance in the case of Vox and the victims’ association Dignidad y Justicia, since He had the Prosecutor’s Office against him.
Precisely, García-Castellón yesterday rejected the Prosecutor’s Office’s appeal against his decision to send a reasoned statement to the Supreme Court to investigate Puigdemont, Rovira and ten other people for a crime of terrorism in said case.
In any case, the third vice president has indicated that the judge “must motivate, explain” his ruling and has advanced that now “we must wait and see what happens.” And questioned as to whether she considered the Tsunami Democràtic case as a case of lawfare, that is, of judicial persecution for political reasons, Ribera has argued that it is “essential” to understand that not only the exercise of judicial power matters, but also “the forms and motivations.” “But also this assessment of opportunity regarding the moment in which this information comes to light is relevant,” emphasized Ribera.
The PP was quick to react to Teresa Ribera’s words. Her national spokesperson, Borja Sámper, has considered that the vice president “has accused a magistrate of prevarication.” “The government’s attack on the division of powers and the defense of independent politicians at the expense of our rule of law continues to escalate,” he added in a message on the social network X.
Likewise, party sources have considered it “extremely serious” that a vice president of the Government suggests that “there are judges who prevaricate in their decision-making”, as they believe Ribera has done. “Sanchism assumes the independence discourse that Justice is not impartial and Ribera gives voice to those who say that there is lawfare in Spain,” these sources indicate.
For its part, Government sources have indicated that the Executive “demonstrates with its actions its institutional respect for the Judiciary, the separation of powers and the independence of judges and magistrates in their work” and that it respects the decisions of the Judiciary “although sometimes don’t share some of them. In the Tsunami case, these sources recall, the magistrate’s decisions were appealed by the Prosecutor, so the legal consideration of the events that occurred as terrorism is pending appeal before the National Court itself. “This legal debate will be resolved by the judicial bodies and the Government will, of course, respect the final decision that is adopted,” they indicated.
And they point to the PP by considering that “if in Spain there is a clear example of interventionism in the Judiciary, it is the kidnapping to which the Popular Party is subjecting the CGPJ, blocking its renewal for more than 5 years. Or the attempt to ‘control the Second Chamber of the TS from behind’, as PP leaders stated at the time.
Grande-Marlaska has entered the controversy from Rabat, where he has traveled to hold a bilateral meeting with his Moroccan counterpart. “It is clear and evident that the Government of Spain has always expressed unwavering respect for judicial independence,” she declared in an attempt to qualify the words of the third vice president. With respect to the latest order by García-Castellón, in which he sees the accusation of terrorism against the former president of the Generalitat reinforced, the minister has asked for “maximum respect” for judicial resolutions, although he has recalled that the decision is not final. , which must be pronounced by the Criminal Chamber of the National Court.
More restrained has been the former president of the socialist government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero who, in statements in Congress and asked about the controversy, has leaned towards chance in the face of the dilemma that he himself has posed between “conspiracy and chance.” In line with this, he seemed to rebuke the words of the third vice president by warning that “each person must be in her place.”
For their part, some Government partners have agreed with the third vice president. “There are coincidences that are very suspicious,” said the deputy general secretary of Esquerra Republicana, Marta Vilalta, also on TVE, alluding to the coincidence of the magistrate’s order with the negotiations for the amendments to the Amnesty law, at the same time who has criticized the judge’s “political obsession” for incriminating the independence movement for terrorism.
At the same time, the ERC spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, launched a diatribe against the judge to support the suspicions of his fellow member: “García Castellón saved Cospedal de la Kitchen, Esperanza Aguirre de la Púnica, he took out Ignacio González from prison, filed the case against the king, never knew who M. Rajoy was, has opened 20 cases against Podemos and has charged Marta Rovira with terrorism for a demonstration,” indicated Rufián in X.
