Madrid, Nov 21 — The week ends in Spain with very low autumn temperatures, quite unlike the political hotbed in a country tense today over the conviction of the State Attorney General.
A historic and unprecedented event that further intensified, if possible, the bitter controversy among the left-wing government, the conservative Popular Party (PP), and the growing far-right Vox.
Álvaro García Ortiz, until yesterday the State Attorney General, was sentenced by the Supreme Court to two years of disqualification and a fine of 7,200 euros, for the crime of revealing confidential information related to the leak of an email admitting tax fraud by Alberto González Amador.
González Amador is undergoing a separate trial for tax fraud. He is the partner of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, regional president of Madrid and a PP figure, who applauded the Supreme Court’s decision and, along with her party, demanded the resignation of the national government leader, the socialist Pedro Sánchez.
Although opinions are deeply divided—with those believing in García Ortiz’s innocence mostly on the left and his detractors on the right—many experts also questioned the legal ruling.
The President of the Council of State, Carmen Calvo, stated that the Supreme Court’s conviction of the Attorney General is bad news and constitutionally difficult to reconcile.
“Considering what we saw in the public part of the trial, as well as the testimonies and witnesses, I believe there is some difficulty in interpreting Article 25 of the Constitution in light of this sentence,” she said from Ciudad Real.
She also expressed concern that the Supreme Court’s decision was not unanimous but made by five of the seven judges on the panel.
“This is a problem because we are talking about the disqualification of a very important public official, the State Attorney General,” she added.
Moreover, Calvo emphasized that the judicial process “has only just begun,” since there will likely be appeals and rulings from other courts within and outside Spain, including the European Court of Human Rights.
The ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) stressed in a statement that it does not agree with the verdict and reiterated that García Ortiz is distinguished by “his commitment to law, truth, and the independence of public institutions.”
Meanwhile, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) expressed perplexity over the sentence and lamented the “judicialization of politics,” since “it harms everyone.”
At the same time, Sumar, the PSOE’s main coalition partner, viewed the ruling as a “judicial blow and the clearest proof that some sectors of the judiciary have decided to engage in political combat against the Government.”
It regarded the sentence as “an attempt to interfere in the democratic life of our country,” based “on weak evidence and not a single direct proof of the leak.”
