The Government, but for the moment has decided to respond officially in a mild manner, pointing out that it respects the ruling and that in the coming days it will appoint another attorney general to replace Álvaro García, whom this ruling forces to leave. The Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, has appeared without questions in La Moncloa with a very serious gesture to ask for calm from all citizens who, like the Government, do not share the condemnation of the attorney general. Bolaños has avoided blaming things although he has clearly shown the Executive’s discomfort with the ruling. “The Government has the legal duty to respect the ruling, but also the moral duty to say publicly that we do not agree with it. The Government has always believed and defended the innocence of the State Attorney General,” said Bolaños.
“However, today the Judiciary has spoken and has resolved this case. Therefore, I announce that in the coming days we will put in place the legal mechanism to appoint a new Attorney General of the State. He or she will be a person with a professional career and a legal qualification that guarantees that he or she will carry out this function with solvency,” the minister assured.
But the most relevant political message has been sent to people who, like the Executive, do not share the ruling and may be outraged. Bolaños has called for calm. “I also want to convey another reflection to all the citizens of this country, especially to those who do not share this ruling. The discrepancy with this sentence cannot lead to a general distrust in the institutions and particularly in justice. Spain is a State of Law with guarantees and resources to resolve discrepancies with a judicial decision.” It is likely that this matter will end up in the Constitutional Court, which could agree with the Executive and the prosecutor.
In addition, Bolaños has sent a message to the press and the officials who have carried out the case against Ayuso’s boyfriend. “To the journalists, to the tax inspectors and prosecutors, I want to send a message. There have been those who have tried to question their work. I want to tell them that this Government will always defend their work and their right to carry it out with guarantees. We will always be at their side. This Government will always defend their work, we will be at their side.”
In the official part, for the moment, ways are being taken to maintain the institutionality in the face of a situation of maximum political gravity. But in private, the messages are very different. In the Executive, according to several ministers consulted, there has been strong indignation over the conviction of the attorney general, which some members of the Executive, especially the jurists, saw as completely impossible due to the lack of evidence.
The atmosphere in the offices of power suggests that in the coming days, when the sentence and its arguments are known, there will be stronger reactions to what the Executive unanimously considers a serious injustice and an attack on an attorney general whose innocence the president himself has defended.
Minister Óscar López himself, a person who is completely trusted by Sánchez, has said that he had to “bite his tongue” not to answer what he thought. The parliamentary spokesperson for the PSOE, Patxi López, who is not a member of the Government but is a trusted person, was more direct and said that “the sentences are followed” but this sentence, “given what was seen” in the trial, is “a real shame.”
In one he said that what he had seen at the trial further reinforced his idea that Álvaro García is innocent, so that this sentence is an absolute train wreck between the Supreme Court and the Government. The fact that the ruling was announced on 20-N, when the Government had prepared several events and videos in favor of democracy, 50 years after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, has generated even more indignation in the Government. And also the division of the court, with a 5-2 and removing the speaker, who was betting on acquittal, gives even more arguments to the Executive to reject the decision outright.
Sumar sees a “full-fledged judicial coup”
Sumar, the minority partner of the Government, sees in the Supreme Court ruling an example of what they consider “proof” of a political fight undertaken by the judiciary. “The conviction of the attorney general is the clearest proof that some sectors of the judiciary have decided to enter into political combat against the Government,” sources from Sumar, the coalition’s minority partner, reacted this Thursday. In a statement released to the media, the coalition points out that the sentence is based on “weak evidence and without a single direct proof of leak” and that, therefore, “it can only be understood as an attempt to interfere in the democratic life” of the country.
“To Sumar, this case has absolute institutional gravity. What has happened is a full-fledged judicial coup: a case built on mere suspicions, unsupported inferences and internal contradictions pointed out even in the individual votes. We will not accept that the rule of law is used to destabilize a legitimate Government,” declared the Executive partner, who questions “the impunity” of Ayuso’s chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, “who acknowledged in the trial itself that he leaked a hoax.” “It was the environment of the president of the Community of Madrid who spread the first false version, while her partner, prosecuted and with recognition of tax crimes in his communications, sought an agreement to avoid jail. Today, those who denied a lie are attacked, not those who fabricated it,” Sumar denounces.
The training also sees it as “very serious” that the process has put the work of journalism “under suspicion.” “Several professionals confirmed that they knew the content before it reached the Prosecutor and took advantage of their professional secrecy to protect their sources, as stated in the judicial chronicles. Criminalizing the Prosecutor’s Office is unfair. Criminalizing journalism is authoritarian. And we will always be on the side of democracy, truth and public institutions,” he concludes. Sumar’s parliamentary spokesperson, Verónica Barbero, has also questioned the conviction of Álvaro García Ortiz. “The judicial and media offensive against the State Attorney General seeks to cover up the corruption scandals that target Ayuso and his partner. A conviction without evidence that must be appealed. ‘Whoever can make him do it,’ he published on his Bluesky social network account.
In line with the first reactions among the left-wing parties, the federal coordinator of Izquierda Unida, Antonio Maíllo, has criticized the Supreme Court’s decision. “The conviction of the attorney general shows institutions captured by the right and impunity for their own. Does anyone doubt what this is about? 50 years after Franco’s death, there is still a task of democratic cleansing. Shame,” the IU leader has spread on his Telegram channel. For the party’s parliamentary spokesperson and person in charge of Justice within Sumar’s group, Enrique Santiago, García Ortiz is convicted “without anyone having proven his guilt and without the right to a second instance appeal.” Inform Paula Chouza.
Compromis sources in Congress have argued that the condemnation of the State Attorney General “by five conservative judges of the Supreme Court is nothing more than evidence of a soft blow against the Government and against the plurinational and progressive majority.” They argue that it is a “black day that puts press freedom and the protection of sources at risk” and point out that for them, “it also puts the presumption of innocence at risk” in Spain. Furthermore, they accuse that there has been a “clear case of lawfare” that “requires a forceful and unified response from the left.” Reports Oscar Martinez.
On the contrary, the deputy spokesperson for the Vox Parliamentary Group, José María Figaredo, has assessed the conviction, denouncing what he considers “a new milestone in the shame of a Government, that of Sánchez, which accumulates charges investigated or convicted: Cerdán, Ábalos, Begoña, the brother, the Attorney General…”. Furthermore, and paraphrasing Sánchez – who predicted a request for forgiveness from the State Attorney General when his innocence was proclaimed – he ironically said: “Who is going to apologize to the Spaniards? Is Sánchez going to come out to ask for forgiveness? Is the prosecutor going to come out?” Thus, Figaredo has demanded elections — “if the Government had any shame it would call them today,” he said — and has guaranteed total opposition to this Government until the polls are returned. Inform Javier Casqueiro. The president of the ultra formation, Santiago Abascal, has elaborated on the same idea in
The PNV has asked to wait to analyze the sentence, although its spokesperson in Congress, Maribel Vaquero, has expressed her astonishment at the meaning of the Supreme Court’s decision. “We will analyze the sentence in depth to be able to make a calm analysis, but the first impression is one of perplexity. Impunity for those who admit to having lied? The judicialization of politics harms us all,” he published on his X account.
The ERC spokesperson has linked the sentence to the case that affects the partner of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. “Ayuso’s brother. €280,000 in commissions. Who gets it? Pablo Casado. Ayuso’s boyfriend. €350,000 in commissions. Who gets it? The State Attorney General. The message is clear: Ayuso doesn’t touch himself,”
