The political and judicial right are pushing pressure on the Attorney General to the limit.

MadridThe political and judicial right is pushing the pressure on the Attorney General of the State, Álvaro García Ortiz, to the limit for his attendance at the opening ceremony of the judicial year at the Supreme Court. García Ortiz, who is about to go on trial for the alleged disclosure of a confidential email from Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner, must publicly present the Prosecutor's Office's report this Friday in a session that will be presided over by Felipe VI and which The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will not attend., which will be missing from the tradition. The conservative leader did so in protest of García Ortiz's presence, and right-wing judges' and prosecutors' associations joined the clash and, in a statement, asked the Attorney General not to attend. Furthermore, the conservative bloc of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) asked its president, Isabel Perelló, in a letter to take action against the presence of not only García Ortiz but also the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños.

Specifically, ten members of the governing body of the judges are demanding that Perelló inform the Attorney General of the "inappropriateness of intervening under the current circumstances." The fact that he is being prosecuted compromises "the serenity that the act requires" and generates "unnecessary tension" for the Attorney General's Office, the judiciary, and the king, they state in the letter to which ARA has had access. They also demand that Bolaños not sit on the bench in the Supreme Court chamber, next to the monarch, to highlight the "judiciary's rejection of the unfair and unjustified attacks on judges by the executive branch." Nine progressive representatives have responded in a statement by denouncing the "artificial polarization" that could distort an event in which, they emphasize, the presence of the Attorney General is required to present the report and in which the Minister of Justice sits in a prominent position due to a "well-established constitutional custom."

While the progressive sector calls on all powers and institutions to respect the "constitutional loyalty that is required of them" and sends a "message of calm and institutional normality" to the citizens, the judicial right is redoubling its pressure. "Sitting next to the king and before the judiciary with a person against whom an oral trial will probably be opened is an unusual act that constitutes an act of contempt for the basic principles of the rule of law and for the head of state himself. It undermines the credibility of justice and affects all judges, magistrates and prosecutors who do their work legally every day," the Professional Association of the Judiciary (APM), the Association of Prosecutors (AF) and the Independent Professional Association of Prosecutors (APIF) said in a statement. The latter is a party to the legal case against García Ortiz.

The Attorney General has no intention of failing in his duty—he already made it clear that he would not resign despite the indictment, and the Spanish government continues to stand firm behind him—and, after presenting the Public Prosecutor's Office report to Felipe VI at Zarzuela Palace on Wednesday, he did so with Sánchez at the Moncloa Palace on Thursday afternoon. And on Friday, he will do so publicly in the Supreme Court, as stipulated by law, with the question of whether the right-wing judges and prosecutors will make any kind of protest, such as not applauding him when he finishes his speech. Feijóo will not be present, something Bolaños sees as a "grave lack of consideration on the part of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the General Council of the Judiciary, and the entire judicial and prosecutorial profession." The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has also joined in: "We cannot discredit the institutions."

The conservative media does not support Feijóo.

Feijóo's main argument is that the Spanish government will place Felipe VI in a situation of "institutional tension" this Friday due to the fact that he will have to share a space with García Ortiz. However, the head of state himself had already received him on Wednesday at the Zarzuela Palace, and the Royal Household shared photographs of the meeting on its social media profiles. The Moncloa Palace took advantage of this morning to praise Feijóo's snub—although it was already known at noon on Wednesday—taking advantage of the fact that the main conservative newspapers have expressed reservations about the PP leader's decision. Moreover, some editorials have criticized Feijóo's absence from an institutional event of this nature as a strategic error.

However, Feijóo remained firm and maintained that he is convinced that with his "measured" decision not to attend the opening of the judicial year, he is providing "a better service to judicial independence and the depoliticization of justice." From Guadalajara, the PP leader responded to Bolaños that he is the one who is "inconsiderate" with the judges in a "continuous and constant" manner due to his "constant interference and disqualifications." The presence of García Ortiz, he insisted, is a "provocation" that must be "denounced." "I do so with absolute respect for the entire judiciary, the king, and the CGPJ," he claimed, citing the statement from the professional associations that are asking that the Attorney General not attend. "Due to that loyalty and respect, I understand that my presence cannot validate the attacks and the defamation of the Spanish Prime Minister towards the judges nor that García Ortiz addresses the judges who are investigating him and who may be judging him," he stressed.

At the time of the event at the Supreme Court, the conservative president will attend a political event with Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Although he initially said that it was a commitment he had already made in July, he already informed the CGPJ of his absence. Be that as it may, the leader of the PP will be with the president of the Community of Madrid, the main instigator of the legal case against García Ortiz, given that everything originated from the Prosecutor's Office's denial of a report about how a possible agreement had been hatched between Alberto and the public prosecutor in his tax fraud proceedings. Feijóo, therefore, abandons institutionality to embrace the polarization promoted by Ayuso and her chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, who in recent months has been anticipating judicial resolutions in the García Ortiz case with his already popular""It's going forward".