We want consensus, but we have corruption.

MadridThis end of November has brought days of stark contrasts. On the one hand, there were the events commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the restoration of the monarchy in Spain. The most significant speeches were delivered at the Royal Palace. Besides that of King Felipe VI himself, there were speeches by the two surviving fathers of the Constitution, Miquel Roca and Miguel Herrero, and former president Felipe González. All of them spoke in defense of the transition to democracy and the value of consensus. González emphasized "civil peace" as the principal and inalienable good of Spanish society. The date of November 21, 2025, certainly had historical significance, with the awarding of the Order of the Golden Fleece to the aforementioned individuals and to Queen Sofía, in the absence of King Juan Carlos I. On the other hand, the negative aspect is simply the context of the moment. The contrast between the solemnity and content of the ceremony at the Royal Palace and the course of life on the street was very evident. For a while, the so-called spirit of the Transition was revived, with various appeals to dialogue and understanding. But one only had to glance at the front pages of the newspapers to realize that political life is taking a different path. The capacity for reaching agreements, attributed to the initial stage of democratic change, and the prevailing climate of concord during the drafting and approval of the 1978 Constitution have been replaced by a ruthless struggle for power. This is not a recent phenomenon, but we are going through a particularly difficult phase, one that will hardly lead to more or less natural political cycles, to alternations of power experienced without upheavals. One only has to look the outcome of the case brought against the Attorney General of the StateÁlvaro García Ortiz, and what is the Supreme Court's agenda for the coming weeks? The judicial system is full of cases with substance and political relevance. It is undoubtedly a pathological situation.

Both the Spanish government and the PP are affected. The executive branch is more seriously affected, both by the conviction of the Attorney General and by the Cerdán-Ábalos-Koldo corruption case. It seems unbelievable that the PSOE has not been able to establish internal control mechanisms to make it more difficult for networks to collect commissions for the awarding of public works contracts to emerge, given the accumulated experience of many years in government and other previous disappointments. The PP faces a relatively similar situation, not only because of the cases that are still pending, but also because some of its top officials in the province of Almería have now had to resign, also due to alleged corruption by public officials in the Provincial Council of that province and in several municipalities. The top leaders of the People's Party are calling for elections every day, while at the same time having to accept that they have local leaders who are repeating behaviors that have cost them dearly in the past. Feijóo himself must be feeling desperate.

In any case, the government now has a major emergency. It doesn't have to do it tomorrow, but within days it will have to find a replacement for the Attorney General. It's often said that there are always candidates for any position, but I doubt there's a queue in this case. Whoever accepts the appointment should know that their term could be short, even if the current legislature runs its full term and the next elections are in 2027. Furthermore, the atmosphere among the prosecutors is far from celebratory. Tensions already existed, in fact, since the most acute phase of the trial, when the Public Prosecutor's Office insisted on classifying the events as a crime of rebellion, seeking a thirty-year prison sentence. Now, whoever assumes responsibility will find a divided group, in which conservatives are doing everything they can to undermine the government's position, while progressives are striving to maintain a roadmap that excludes opposition to the socialists. For the latter, it's about combating the slogan coined by former president José María Aznar: "Whoever can do it, let them do it," a poisonous phrase that partly explains Pedro Sánchez's current predicament.

Doing Politics

In any case, judges don't need to engage in politics to destabilize a government. It's enough for them to interpret and apply the law with the appropriate bias to achieve that goal. Consider the complaint made in September 2020 by the then Deputy Attorney General of the Supreme Court, Luis Navajas, criticized by his own colleagues for refusing to file the lawsuits brought against Pedro Sánchez's government for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Navajas explained that two prosecutors had come to see him to ask him to take action against the executive branch, as if such an initiative were the most natural thing in the world. To make it clearer, he added that the two colleagues who had visited him were "ideologically biased." And meanwhile, abusive contracts with kickbacks were being signed in exchange for medical supplies needed to try to mitigate the effects of the health emergency.

The protagonists of this chapter are, on the one hand, the businessman Alberto González Amador, partner of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso; And on the other hand, there are Cerdán, Ábalos, and Koldo, the main players in the crisis now gripping the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). And it all revolves around commissions and face masks. Cerdán has been released from prison because the judge believes there is no longer a risk of evidence tampering. But the other two could be sent to prison soon, given the lengthy sentences the prosecution has requested: 24 years for former minister Ábalos and 19 for his former advisor, Koldo García. The judge will decide next Thursday, the 27th. What the prosecutors see here is a flight risk, a way to avoid such harsh sentences. The outlook for Cerdán is unlikely to improve. The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard has stated that the network he was part of allegedly diverted 181,000 euros for him and his associates in the form of family salaries, furniture, travel and restaurant expenses, as well as rent. Understandably, reports of Friday's important event at the Royal Palace mentioned that the celebration had been "overshadowed" by the current political climate.