The separation of powers according to Marhuenda

25/03/2025
2 min

I read the following headline on the front page The reason:"Francisco Marhuenda joins the Academy of Jurisprudence with a defense of the separation of powers." It is superlative and formidable news that the director of the newspaper that has former minister Jorge Fernández Díaz as a daily columnist makes this stalwart defense of one of the basic principles of democratic hygiene. The same newspaper, for example, that supported the politicization of the judges of the Trial after thescareMr. Rajoy, incapable of addressing the issue through the usual parliamentary methods. It's safe to assume that, following his inaugural address, many things will change at the Planeta newspaper. (Soft, stifled laughter.)

Francisco Marhuenda in a file image.

In fact, the main separation of powers to be claimed from Marhuenda is the one that should be respected between the three classic branches – legislative, executive and judicial – and the institution of the press, the so-called fourth estate, which is not supposed to be the armed wing of the first three, but rather their democratic counterweight. There was little separation of powers observed.The reasonwhen, under his direction, he published the ID photos of the 22 judges who had signed an independence manifesto, a case that earned him an indictment. The case was closed because it couldn't be determined who had leaked it. ID photos? Who could have had access to them? No Sherlock could unravel the enormous mystery until the matter reached Europe, where they were more astute: the European Court of Human Rights condemned the State for a violation of the right to respect for private and family life due to the preparation of these files by the Spanish police. In short, there was no way of knowing. I suppose that when the separation of powers in Spain is a joke, the discourses about this sacred principle in its press are also proportionally devalued.

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