Manuel Marchena with his right-wing colleagues

MadridNo one who attended the presentation of Manuel Marchena's book this Monday will have found an innovative legal or political disquisition compared to what they will find inJustice THREATENED (Espasa), a "considered, prudent, and non-dogmatic" view, according to writer Lorenzo Silva, on issues of current legal-political debate. The Supreme Court judge believes that political parties should be prohibited from exercising public prosecution and that only deputies, senators, members of the Spanish government, and the emeritus king—the current king is inviolable—should be granted immunity. He also believes that the current climate is not ripe for a profound reform that would lead the Prosecutor's Office to conduct criminal proceedings. All of this, which he explains at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, is already included in the book.

Thus, the only new features that those attending the presentation will find is the public recognition of the lawyers who participated in the Proceso trial: they were "very good," he says. He also says that if he could, he would leave law to dedicate himself to literature. "I try to write [the sentences] well, and I don't always succeed," he laments, and declares his healthy envy of Lorenzo Silva, with whom he mutually admires. Silva is in charge of leading the conversation.

One can imagine that Marchena, who has sought to keep the publicity of his book under tight control—he has not accepted interviews with the media; he has only answered written questionnaires with no possibility of cross-questioning—would never have allowed Ignacio Cosidó, the former PP spokesperson in the Senate who thwarted his rise to president of the General Council of the Judiciary with that one, to attend the event. WhatsApp about "controlling the Second Chamber through the back door." However, despite addressing the thorniest issues of the legal debate in a "considered" manner, and although former PP Justice Minister Rafael Catalá does not have a reserved seat and must find an empty chair among the press, the inclination of the audience is revealing. They will allow this columnist to list many names, at the risk of becoming tiresome: the acting presidents of the Second and Third Chambers of the Supreme Court, Andrés Martínez-Arrieta and Pablo Lucas, candidates from the conservative bloc to formally become such; the right-wing Constitutional Court judges José María Macías and Concepción Espejel; the colleagues from the Second Chamber Pablo Llarena and Carmen Lamela; the members of the CGPJ Alejandro Abascal and Gema Espinosa; the president of the National Court, Juan Manuel Martínez; the president of the Madrid High Court of Justice, Celso Rodríguez; the former president of the CGPJ Carlos Lesmes; the former Constitutional Court judge Antonio Narváez; and retired Civil Guard lieutenant colonel and one of the greatest enemies of the trial, Diego Pérez de los Cobos. They all have in common their belonging to the conservative sector of the judiciary (or politics, or the police). Also attending are Isabel Perelló, president of the CGPJ (General Council of the Judiciary), due to her institutional role, and Susana Polo, theoretically progressive but closely aligned with Marchena in the second chamber, as well as Constitutional Court judge and former PSOE Minister of Justice Juan Carlos Campo, a personal friend of his. In reality, Marchena's affinities and affiliations were nothing new.