Sánchez clashes with the Supreme Court: he defends the Attorney General and hopes the Constitutional Court will overturn the ruling

BarcelonaThe silence is over. Three days later, Spanish President Pedro Sánchez has finally spoken out about it. the conviction of the Attorney General of the StateÁlvaro García Ortiz, escalating the clash with the judiciary, has entrusted the Constitutional Court with correcting "some aspects of the ruling." "We have always respected the independence of the judiciary; it is others who have spoken of controlling the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court through the back door," he stated this Sunday at a press conference in Johannesburg, where he is participating in the G-20 summit. With this jab at the People's Party (PP) for the control of the high court that Popular Party Senator Ignacio Cosidó boasted about, he has distanced himself and taken the opportunity to implicitly criticize the chamber presided over by Manuel Marchena, which handed down the sentence. "We accept the ruling, although we do not agree with it," he continued, reiterating the message conveyed by the Moncloa Palace (the Prime Minister's office) since Thursday. In this regard, he reaffirmed that his government "regrets" the ruling and chooses to "express its disagreement," as it believes is appropriate in a democratic society. "I believe in the innocence of the Attorney General," he insisted, despite the court verdict. For this reason, he clung to the testimony of journalists who exonerated García Ortiz from the leak of confidential emails containing tax information about the partner of the Madrid president—the crux of the case. "It has been clearly demonstrated that the Attorney General was not the source of the leak," he asserted. In addition to "regretting this sentence," as he repeatedly stated, he said that "the procedure to appoint a new Attorney General" has already begun. He also expressed confidence that the Constitutional Court will rectify some points of the sentence, which he labeled "controversial," once it is made public with the full legal reasoning, not just the operative part: "There are other jurisdictional bodies that will have to resolve some aspects of the sentence," he remarked.

That is why he has refused to discuss a pardon for García Ortiz, since, for now, "it makes no sense." However, when he explained that the state executive has initiated "the procedure for replacing and appointing the new attorney general," about which he gave no details, he took the opportunity to praise the "very positive" work of the current officeholder. "The government has always proposed people, like Álvaro García Ortiz, with extensive experience from a legal standpoint," he argued.

'In crescendo'

The ruling has shaken Spanish politics, creating a strong polarization that has placed the judiciary in the crosshairs of the Spanish government and the left in general. Accusations of an "unjust" sentence have come from the Socialist wing of the Spanish government, and even of a "judicial coup" from Sumar and other progressive partners. These claims have escalated with Sánchez's head-on clash with the high court that convicted García Ortiz in the case of the leak of tax data belonging to Alberto González Amador, Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner.

The political dimension of the case, due to the involvement of a key figure for Sánchez—the Attorney General—has generated a heated atmosphere between the right and the left. While the PP and Vox called for elections, criticism of the ruling from the left became more strident than ever. The leader of ERC in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, even compared García Ortiz's sentence to the one handed down by the Marchena court in 2019 against the leaders of the Catalan independence movement. Also on Sunday, former president Carles Puigdemont, leader of Junts, drove the point home in an article in The CountryThus, he directly linked the legal harassment of Sánchez and his inner circle to the pact with Junts and the amnesty law. For this reason, he has demanded that Sánchez "begin the break" with the 1978 regime that the PSOE "refused to make" 50 years ago.

A break that, in his view, is the only "option" to "escape the abyss" of Spanish socialism, and which should not only imply a break with the monarchy, but also the recognition of the "right to self-determination." According to him, pacts with "the old regime" only "perpetuate" it, and he has warned that the current political climate "is very similar to that of other turbulent periods" that have ended in "wars," "dictatorships," or the 23-F coup attempt. "Two years after [the Brussels agreement], the protagonist of that first photo in Parliament [Santos Cerdán] has already spent several months in prison, accused of corruption; criminal proceedings have been opened against those close to President Pedro Sánchez and also directly against his family; and an attorney general aligned with the government and a key figure in guaranteeing [the government's independence] has been disqualified from holding office," he wrote.

From the Catalan independence movement, the criticism directed at the Spanish government, and in particular the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), is that it did not denounce the political role of the courts in their rulings until it affected them personally. Nevertheless, the Minister for Digital Transformation, Óscar López, reiterated this Saturday that the "unjust" sentence would not silence them when it comes to denouncing Ayuso's "tripijocs" (a derogatory term for corrupt politicians). Meanwhile, the People's Party (PP) is spreading the word that the "Spanish Process" is underway, a concept coined by Senator Juan Milián and Catalan leader Alejandro Fernández, referring to the extension throughout Spain of the decade of separatist fervor, including clashes with the law.