PSC and ERC agree that magistrate Josep Tomàs Salas will be the new director of Antifrau

BarcelonaA pact between the PSC and ERC has cleared the way for the new director of the Anti-Fraud Office. Both parliamentary groups proposed Judge Josep Tomàs Salas for the position on Tuesday at the Parliament's governing board, replacing Miguel Ángel Gimeno, whose term expired this September. This Thursday, the Catalan judge will appear before the committee on institutional affairs to explain his proposal before being voted on by the full Parliament, where it is expected that the majority that supported the investiture, including the Comuns party, will approve the nomination. Salas was a close collaborator of Gimeno when the latter was president of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC). To become the new director of the Antifraud Office, the support of three-fifths of the members of parliament is required in the first vote, that is, 81 members. However, if this is not achieved, a second vote would be held in which only an absolute majority of votes would be necessary, the 68 members of parliament who supported Salvador's investiture. Government spokesperson Silvia Paneque defended the selection of the new director, made "at the proposal of the president," which must be submitted to the "parliamentary process." "It is a suitable profile, and it will be the Parliament that defines and expresses its opinion on this matter," she emphasized, adding that there is a "majority" that can endorse it. Although the proposal was mandated to be made by the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, Josep Tomàs Salas's name was put forward as part of an agreement between the PSC and ERC parties. According to the Socialists, the name was communicated to the main parliamentary groups, including Junts. However, Junts members have sent a letter to the president lamenting that the proposal came without "any consensus with the main opposition party": "He hasn't even opened a real space for negotiation on a decision of this magnitude," lamented the parliamentary group's president, Mònica Sales, at the mass. In any case, the spokesperson in the chamber, Salvador Vergés, made it clear at a press conference that Junts' discontent is not "with the name," but with "the methods" of the executive. Meanwhile, the leader of Comuns in the Parliament, Jéssica Albiach, stated that they will wait for the magistrate's appearance before deciding how to vote. "The name and CV were put forward before several parliamentary groups [...] Junts has decided to practice a flat-rate opposition," retorted the president of the PSC parliamentary group, Ferran Pedret.

An alternative name?

Salas was ultimately chosen, but the name of Gemma Calvet, a lawyer, transparency expert, and former ERC deputy, had also been mentioned. This is confirmed by sources close to him, who attribute the magistrate's selection directly to the criteria of Gimeno, the outgoing director. Salas is now the head of Criminal Court No. 22 in Barcelona, ​​but his career took off in 2010 when he was appointed head of the section supporting the presidency of the TSJC (High Court of Justice of Catalonia), which was then headed by Gimeno. Salas was, therefore, a collaborator of the progressive judge, and this demonstrates a continuation of the previous approach.

According to the sources consulted, Calvet was approached about the position from within the Antifraud Office. In a message to X, she herself criticized the outcome of the negotiations: "I regret not being the current director's candidate, although I don't understand why it should be him who decides. I say this with complete transparency and a sense of public service." Between 2017 and 2023, Calvet was director of the AMB Transparency Agency. Sources within ERC maintain that Salas's name is a "consensus name and a good profile," while Junts says they were never consulted to make any proposals: "They didn't give us the opportunity."

Salas' profile

With nearly two decades of judicial experience, Salas has been the presiding judge in some significant recent rulings, such as when he convicted the perpetrators of the attack on the Catalunya Ràdio headquarters on October 27, 2017. The attack was carried out by a group of radical Spanish nationalists who had been demonstrating in Plaça Artós de Sarrià against the vandals. Salas sentenced one man to a fine of one thousand euros and ordered him to pay 4,333 euros in compensation to the Catalan Corporation of Audiovisual Media (CCMA). He also ruled that the anti-fascists accused of assaulting a group of neo-Nazis on October 12, 2013, would not go to prison. In a 2018 ruling, he acquitted three young people of all charges and sentenced three others to six months in prison for various offenses.

Salas will have to face the parliamentary hearing, with his judicial experience as his calling card. In the academic field, as a jurist, he addressed economic crimes, although his doctoral thesis dealt with crimes against unborn beings under the title ofThe crime of causing injury to the fetus, published in 2007. She has also recently given talks on road safety offenses, one of the issues that flood the courts, as well as thefts, one of the crimes that judges have to deal with the most.