One of the judges Sánchez singled out made his move this Wednesday. Juan Carlos Peinado, who is investigating his wife, has requested from the Moncloa Palace all of Begoña Gómez's emails since July 11, 2018. The judge wants a copy of the contents of the official account assigned to the wife of the Prime Minister so that the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard can access it. He also requested information about who authorized the payment of salaries to Gómez's advisor, Cristina Álvarez, who is to testify next Wednesday as a suspect. Sánchez's wife will finally do so on the same day, September 10, at 12 noon, after her defense requested a change of date. It will be a day earlier than planned and will coincide with a marathon plenary session in Congress where there will be, among other matters, a scrutiny session on Sánchez.
Feijóo will not attend the opening ceremony of the judicial year in protest against the Attorney General of the State.
The PP leader will attend an Ayuso rally and regrets that Sánchez is forcing Felipe VI to meet with García Ortiz.
MadridAlberto Núñez Feijóo will not attend the opening ceremony of the judicial year this Friday at the Supreme Court as a sign of protest against the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz. The leader of the opposition always attends this session, presided over by Felipe VI, and Feijóo has done so since becoming president of the PP, although this time he has sought an excuse to snub García Ortiz and, consequently, the king and the Spanish judicial leadership. "The PP has the utmost respect for the General Council of the Judiciary and the Supreme Court. The same respect it has for the Crown in general and for His Majesty the King in particular," say sources from Génova, who expressly exclude the Attorney General from this reverence.
According to the PP, Feijóo already had a "prior commitment" to the PP's opening ceremony of the political year in Madrid, alongside Isabel Díaz Ayuso, which will take place that same Friday at noon in Arganda del Rey. It seems hard to believe that on July 24, when the media already knew that the opening ceremony of the judicial year would be on September 5, Feijóo and Ayuso had already scheduled the rally for that same day. In any case, the PP does not hide its leader's desire to protest against García Ortiz. "The PP regrets that the Spanish government subjects the head of state to the institutional tension of sharing an event with an attorney general in this procedural situation, which would be easily avoidable if Pedro Sánchez forced his resignation immediately. Feijóo, therefore, will accompany Ayuso and will not attend the opening of the judicial year in which he participates in the judicial year in which the CGPJ participates, and which is being prosecuted and awaiting trial by the Supreme Court itself", complain the conservative leadership.
Some media outlets reported on Wednesday that certain sectors of the judicial right are considering a kind of boycott of García Ortiz, who will present the Prosecutor's Office's report for 2024 on Friday in the Supreme Court's plenary chamber." a magistrate of the Spanish high court, after the swearing in of the new presidents of the second chamber of the high court, Andrés Martínez Arrieta, and of the third chamber, Pablo Lucas.
![The new president of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, Andrés Martínez Arrieta, greeting the president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Isabel Perelló.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1920 1280"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Thus, the Supreme Court has ruled out actions such as leaving the courtroom or entering it after García Ortiz has already spoken, but it remains to be seen whether there is more or less applause for his speech. Although some representatives of the judicial leadership said this Wednesday that speeches are not usually applauded—this was the case in 2022 and 2023—the fact is that last year there was applause after the speeches of García Ortiz and the president of the CGPJ, Isabel Perell.
Sánchez's attacks
The start of the judicial course is marked by the criticism that the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, expressed on Monday in an interview on TVE in "a minority" of judges who "play politics", he said. "The Spanish Prime Minister has said that in our country, judges persecute citizens for their political beliefs and not for committing crimes. What's more, Sánchez doubts the charges and prosecutions of the prosecutor, but also those of his brother and his wife. This government doesn't respect justice because amnesty celebrates the annulment of the convictions of [Manuel] Chaves and [José Antonio] Griñán and protects people like García Ortiz, Begoña Gómez, and David Sánchez Pérez-Castejón [the Spanish Prime Minister's brother]," criticize PP sources. Perelló is expected to defend the independence of the judiciary in his speech on Friday, but not to open an explicit confrontation with Sánchez.
