Sánchez rules out giving instructions to the State Attorney's Office on Court of Auditors case

MadridThe case of the Court of Auditors against the independence movement over the Catalan government's external action between 2011 and 2017 has become a hot potato for the Spanish government, which is unsure about how to address it. It seemed José Luis Ábalos, Minister for Transport and Pedro Sánchez's right-hand man, opened a path last week by, somehow, looking for ways to suppress the cause and avoid the multi-million bails former Catalan cabinet members -among them former minister Andreu Mas-Colell or former vice president and leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras - could end up facing. Ábalos referred to the case as a "stone in the road" which it was necessary "to clear". Spanish president Pedro Sánchez, however, has cooled this possibility this Monday in an interview with SER Barcelona and has avoided questioning this politicised body.

In first place, Sánchez has highlighted that it is an "administrative instance" and not a judicial body, but has also stressed that the Spanish government "respects the work" they do and that they will respect its decision. Even so, he stressed that there is the possibility of pursuing the case before other courts. When asked specifically about whether the Moncloa rules out giving instructions to the State Attorney, who is prosecuting around 40 current and former Generalitat officials in this case, he rejected it categorically.

His opinion contrasts with that of Minister of Equality and Podemos number two Irene Montero, who in an interview almost at the same time on TVE has pointed out that the Spanish government has to do everything possible to pull the accusations against independence to the Court of Auditors and leave "absolute protagonism" to "politics, dialogue and agreement". That is why she has shown herself in favour of dispensing with "all that is eminently political" considering it "dificulties" and "stones in the road" that the Spanish government, she has said, will go ahead "either way". The Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), through its parliamentary spokesperson Alícia Romero has asked Montero for "caution". "If there are solutions, they should be reached within the government and by the established ways," she said at a press conference. Romero has also taken the opportunity to denounce the PP's "blocking" of the renewal of the Court of Auditors and has subscribed Sánchez's words.

The Spanish president has pointed out that the Court of Auditors' decision on the instruction that will be communicated tomorrow "can still be appealed". This will be in the hands of both the State Attorney - to whom Sánchez has specified that he will not give instructions - and the Prosecutor's Office, the affected parties and the popular action represented by Societat Civil Catalana. It should be noted that the investigation began at the request of the unionist entity, but it was the Prosecutor's Office and then the State Attorney's Office that decided to go ahead.

In this sense, the vice president of the Spanish government, Nadia Calviño, has assured that the Moncloa has not analysed the cases of the Court of Auditors against the independence movement: "It is not a subject that we have studied," he said in an interview with La 2 and Radio 4. Despite the fact that this Monday the Spanish government has not wanted to move on the issue of the Court of Auditors, the leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, has harshly criticised the government: he has blamed Sanchez of "blocking" the task of the Court of Auditors and pretending that the Spaniards are the ones who pay for the "corruption and embezzlement" of the pro-independence leaders. At the same time, he has accused the Spanish government of trying to change the system of election of the members of the Court of Auditors to avoid the PP's blockade of its renewal. "It is the same as we have seen with the CGPJ and the Council of State," but they "cant count on us for this circus show," he said.

Tomorrow, Junts per Catalunya will promote an initiative in the Spanish Parliament. The secretary general of JxCat, Jordi Sànchez, who has offered the first press conference at the headquarters of the party after being pardoned, has announced that they will propose that the State Attorney's Office withdraw from the Court of Auditors case, where until now it has backed the requests of pro-independence leaders over the Generalitat's external action, reports Núria Orriols Guiu reports.

The former leader of the ANC also wanted to make clear that the measure of grace for the nine political prisoners has not been agreed or negotiated between his party and the Spanish government. "There has been no exchange," he asserted, noting that the cases against dozens of pro-independence activists continue and that the political conflict has not ended.

Rectification on the pardon

Sanchez has devoted much of the interview to once again doing "pedagogy" on the pardons, as he calls it. But for the first time he has accepted that he has had to rectify on the measure of grace. "I do not deny that I have changed my mind," he has admitted when asked about his words in 2019, but in this sense he has defended that before the tool had to be the "punishment", with the application of article 155 of the Constitution, and that now it is "concord".

A day before meeting Pere Aragonès and after a rare image of late, with the King, the Spanish President and the Catalan President coinciding at the MWC, Sánchez considered "we are on the way to recovering constitutional normality" and insisted that the Generalitat needs to stop making half of Catalans "invisible". For practical purposes, for the government translates this into the fact that the Government meets the table of parties promoted by the PSC in the previous legislature -which neither the PP nor Ciutadans will take part in- and establish a fluid dialogue with the head of the opposition, Salvador Illa. Ábalos also celebrated the leaders' joint photo, and affirmed that it is a "very important conquest" to bring together the king, Sánchez and Aragonès at the same table.

On the other hand, Sanchez said for the first time he does not want Junqueras to sit at the negotiating table. As well as repeating that it is a table between governments, he has stressed that as an "institutional" body and there cannot be any disqualified persons, and the pardon maintains the disqualification of pro-independence leaders. He has also closed the door to an agreed referendum, as well as amnesty, and has defended a vote on an "agreement" because he believes that a referendum would be to transfer to the citizens a political responsibility that has not been resolved.

JxCat secretary general Jordi Sànchez has assured that the dialogue table cannot be an extension of a "commission of transfers" State-Generalitat, but that the political conflict has to be approached along the axes of amnesty and self-determination. Thus, he has urged Aragonès, who tomorrow has to meet with the head of the Spanish executive in Madrid, to focus his meeting on this issue, beyond the European funds. In his opinion, the content of the dialogue between the two governments must be defined by the two coalition partners and not only by the leader of Esquerra

The conference of presidents, at the end of July in Salamanca

Beyond the meeting with Aragonès and the plenary on Wednesday in the Spanish parliament over the pardons, another of the key appointments in July for Sánchez will be the face-to-face meeting of the conference of presidents, which finally will be celebrated in Salamanca in the last week of July. There is still uncertainty as to whether Aragonès will participate and what the attitude of PP presidents like Isabel Díaz Ayuso will be like. On the role of Pablo Casado, the Spanish president has regretted that he makes "the most furious opposition in Europe" and has taken for granted that in September the PP, Vox and Ciutadans will support a new motion of censure.

The last appointment will be a reshuffle of the government that for the moment has been floated among the members of the council of ministers but which Sánchez has played down, claiming that right now "it is not a priority" because the main objective is vaccination and the exit of the crisis.