I open Ara.cat and the first thing I see are two headlines that, juxtaposed, are even more eloquent than when read separately. “Peinado sends Begoña Gómez to trial for embezzlement and influence peddling”, says the one in the report signed by Núria Orriols Guiu. “Mazón shrugs off responsibility and refuses to give new explanations in Congress regarding the DANA”, says the one in the news story signed by Andrea Zamorano.Beyond dealing with the bituminous Spanish politics, both share the common element of duty fulfilled. Judge Peinado, having become an icon of justice placed at the service of political interests that would not escape the understanding of even a child, retires on Sunday and did not want to do so without having carried out the objective he had set for himself (and, we can also understand it this way, to which he had committed himself): to bring the wife of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, to trial for a completely invented case that has had one of the most bizarre and ridiculous journeys in Spanish justice in the last ten years (and that is saying a lot). He has done it just as he wanted: with a popular jury, in order to increase the possibility of a guilty verdict. The family in prison: Begoña Gómez, David Sánchez and, if possible, Pedro Sánchez in person. In his case, for being a traitor to Spain. This is the current wet dream of the Spanish right, a maximum revenge against imaginary grievances. It is the same right that from time to time feels the need to save Spain, even if it means destroying the rule of law or, directly, a few hundred thousand citizens as happened during the Civil War and the dictatorship. And it is, also, the scrupulous realization of Aznar's mandate: whoever can do, let them do. Surely, Peinado will not have a reward because henchmen usually do not get one, beyond a few pats on the back. And the satisfaction of duty fulfilled.Mazón also did his duty, enduring the scandal of the disastrous management of the DANA on October 29, 2024, and the 230 deaths caused by his government's negligence, without resigning, without calling elections, and facilitating an easy transition with his second-in-command, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, so that the management of the thirty billion of the Reconstruction Plan would remain in the hands of the PP and his government. In return, he has been left with an ex-president's salary, a seat in the Valencian Courts where he can go to take a nap if he feels like it, and a full exoneration from the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Country that Mazón flaunted this Monday at his appearance in Congress as if it were a license to kill. And which aborted the investigation by the judge of Catarroja, at least until Mazón loses his parliamentary immunity. The inept and lying man has a reward and protection; the woman who, as far as we know, has done nothing punishable but is married to the wrong political leader, runs the risk of being convicted; the judge who pursues her has the applause of the neo-Francoist horde. The juxtaposition explains well, indeed, the moment of degradation of politics and justice in which we find ourselves.
