The motion of censure, in the drawer with key
MadridAt the moment, Spanish political life strongly resembles the frozen images that sometimes get stuck, fixed, on the screen of a television or some other device. We are waiting for the next step, something has to happen, but no one is taking the initiative. The indictment of former government president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has led to all sorts of hypotheses and expressions of concern, but it has not brought about substantial changes in relations between political forces.
The current socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez, may feel like the victim of a siege operation to remove him from Moncloa, and think that the case against his predecessor should be interpreted as a key piece of this strategy. In fact, he has believed in this persecution for some time. It wasn't even necessary for Aznar to say that "whoever can, should do it," understood as an attempt to end "sanchismo." Nevertheless, Sánchez also notes that there do not seem to be any new developments in the short term. On the one hand, the PP sees no advantage in presenting a motion of no confidence for which it lacks four votes to succeed. And, on the other hand, the partners who allowed Sánchez's investiture have no interest in facilitating a change that would bring the Popular Party, allied with Vox, into government.
Under these circumstances, the hypothesis of a motion of no confidence is in a locked drawer. A certain period of waiting has begun until Zapatero has testified before the judge who indicted him, and until Sánchez provides explanations in Congress. As the days go by, the impression grows that the magistrate has relied too heavily on police reports regarding the former president's role as head of a criminal organization, based on indications that will need to be thoroughly verified. Conjectures have been made about facts that may have little substance.
For example, Judge Calama's ruling considered it suspicious that businessmen interested in the rescue of the airline Plus Ultra had prematurely celebrated the concession of 53 million in aid when the Council of Ministers had not yet made the decision. Official sources have admitted, however, that it is customary to provide prior information when files are progressing positively. It will not surprise us if supposedly relevant pieces of the puzzle begin to deflate.
Questions to be clarified
from the PSOE, Leire Díez, so that she could blow up the investigations against the socialists. Money wasted, as has been seen.
In this case, Julio Martínez is the one who must not be lost track of. It makes some sense that speculation is now beginning about the possibility that he wants to cooperate with justice. This businessman has decided to change lawyers due to disagreements with his first defender. And we have just seen, in the trial of the mask case against the former minister José Luis Ábalos, his former advisor Koldo García and the businessman Víctor de Aldama, that agreements with the Prosecutor's Office work. For the first, the prosecutor asks for 24 years in prison, for the second 19 years and 6 months, and for the third only 7 years, a request that the PP further reduced so that he would not have to go to prison. And the head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, Alejandro Luzón, concluded his report defending that the reduction proposed by the popular prosecution could be considered correct, even though Aldama's collaboration was not decisive in the investigation, but it did allow it to be advanced in certain phases.
Surely Víctor Moreno Catena, Zapatero's defender, is very attentive to Julio Martínez's movements in case he ends up conditioning the development of the investigations by saying that he wants to reach an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office to facilitate the progress of the case and the clarification of the facts in exchange for maximum flexibility in the accusations and penalty requests that may be made against him later.
Zapatero's statement
In any case, now what needs to be done is to go step by step and follow Zapatero's first statement as an investigated person. The former president will appear at the National Court on June 17 and 18. It was logical to postpone the summons, initially scheduled for next Tuesday, June 2. The defense requested this adjournment to be able to read the more than four thousand pages of the summary, now transferred to the parties. The court has scheduled two days because it is anticipated that the interrogation will be long, unless the former president limits himself to answering his lawyer. In any case, if he thoroughly prepares his statement, it would be advisable for him to answer at least the Public Prosecutor's Office as well. It is less important to answer the popular accusations, considering their marked political profile.
It remains to be seen whether the judge will take precautionary measures against Zapatero. Provisional imprisonment is unlikely, even though Vox has requested it from day one. But the withdrawal of his passport or periodic appearances at the Court to monitor his stay in Spain, and therefore, that he is always available to the court, cannot be ruled out. Surely, what would be received with a sense of relief among the government partners would be for Zapatero to be able to return to his home without further ado, awaiting the new steps in the investigation.
From here on is when the parties will be able to start filing briefs and requesting proceedings. The defense will surely question the telephone recordings provided by an American agency for lack of guarantees; these are the conversations where third parties speak of Zapatero as a key player in the alleged criminal network. We will also have to pay close attention to the results of the expert report on the jewels found in the former president's office. And also follow the other case regarding the payments to the PSOE "plumber", Leire Díez, so that she could disrupt the investigations against the socialists. Money wasted, as has been seen.
