The Judiciary will investigate the judge who called Pedro Sánchez a “psychopath” for new messages against the president and his wife | Spain

The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) once again investigates Judge Manuel Ruiz de Lara, Pedro Sánchez, but finally renounced sanctioning him. Sources from the governing body of the judges indicate that the plenary session agreed in its last meeting, held on December 18, to send to its disciplinary authority a message published by Ruiz de Lara on his X account on December 14 in which accused Sánchez of practicing “coup” for “attacking the judges,” citing an editorial published that day by The Debate. This same Saturday, Ruiz de Lara published a tweet in which he refers to Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, as “Barbigoña”. This message has provoked a rapid reaction of condemnation from socialist leaders, and the PSOE has issued a note demanding that disciplinary measures be taken against the judge.

Ruiz de Lara, head of the 11th Commercial Court of Madrid, has for years been launching furious criticism against Pedro Sánchez, his ministers, progressive magistrates of the Constitutional Court, the State Attorney General or the media and journalists. In November 2023, he deleted his X account (formerly Twitter) after EL PAÍS echoed several of his messages in which he called Sánchez a “psychopath without ethical limits” and a “pathological liar.” The CGPJ, which at that time had had its mandate extended for five years and was led by a conservative majority, opened a file, but it had not been proven that the judge invoked or used his status as a judge to disseminate said comments. . By then, Ruiz de Lara had already opened a new But the shelving of his file gave him wings and, since then, he has published more than 500 messages in which he has gradually raised his tone against the Government and its environment.

The message for which the CGPJ is investigating him was released hours after the President of the Government accused the PP of “playing with the cards marked in justice.” Ruiz de Lara retweeted an editorial from The Debate titled Attacking justice is a coup, president and accompanied it with the following message: “Attacking the judges is a coup. It is an anti-system accusation, defining an autocrat who turns the counterpowers of a democracy into a target to be overthrown because they prevent impunity. An attack on the essence of democracy.”

Sources from the governing body of the judges point out that it was the president of the disciplinary commission, José María Fernández Seijo, who expressed that the plenary session should make this message known to the promoter of the disciplinary action, Ricardo Conde, who already held that position in the previous Council and had been appointed again at that same session. The plenary session accepted Fernández Seijo’s proposal unanimously, according to these sources. Now it will be Conde who will have to do a first investigation and decide if he proposes to file a case with the judge or archive it. On the previous occasion, the promoter saw no reason to open a file after the first phase of investigation, arguing that since the magistrate deleted the messages, it was not possible to verify if he wrote them himself or if he did so identifying himself as a member of the judicial career. despite the fact that the documentation analyzed in the CGPJ included numerous screenshots that demonstrated the link between the magistrate and the account analyzed. The disciplinary commission urged him to continue, but Conde ended the investigation with a proposal to file that was assumed by the CGPJ.

Sources from the body point out that the new CGPJ elected last summer, with a progressive majority, has “new outlook and new approaches”, but the body will wait to know the proposal from the disciplinary authority. What is foreseeable is that new messages published by Ruiz de Lara, such as the one released this Saturday, may be incorporated into this open investigation. Written as an innocent joke on December 28, the judge wrote: “Today he will announce my appointment as Minister of Justice. The pact includes CGPJ reform, resignation as FGE of the “official draft of messages” and replacement of Conde Pumpido who will go on to direct a chair of “unconstitutionality and amnesty” with Barbigoña in Santo Domingo.” The text is accompanied by an image of Sánchez, another of Álvaro García Ortiz and a third of Begoña Gómez represented as a Barbie doll.

This message has caused PSOE leaders to leave in a rush, among others, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero and the PSOE Secretary of Equality, Pilar Bernabé. “This is intolerable. They are not innocent, they are sexist, regrettable and shameful comments. It is not the first time that he has been involved in events of this type. “What else has to happen?” Montero wrote, while Bernabé described it as “absolutely unacceptable” that a judge “dedicates himself to spreading sexist jokes about the wife of the President of the Government.” “We cannot normalize this type of messages under any circumstances. They lack respect, damage our institutions and perpetuate machismo,” added the Socialist Secretary of Equality.

The PSOE has released a note in which it requests that disciplinary action be taken against Ruiz de Lara for once again “exceeding the limits of decency.” “This type of behavior is not only disrespectful, but also undermines citizens’ trust in judicial institutions,” the text states. “When a magistrate uses his position to personally and vindictively attack those who do not share his vision, he not only damages the individuals, but the entire institution he represents. Judicial independence is not synonymous with impunity, and those who exercise justice must be responsible for their actions, inside and outside the courtroom,” say the socialists, who warn that justice “must serve citizens, not personal interests.” nor political attacks.”