“There is no more paradigmatic case of lawfare in Spain than the kidnapping of the PP from the Judiciary”

2023-12-04 11:03:13

“There is no more paradigmatic case of ‘lawfare’ and politicization of Justice in Spain than this kidnapping in which the PP has engulfed the Judiciary.” In these terms, Pedro Sánchez has reproached the PP for the situation of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), precisely on the day that the governing body of the judges has been blocked for five years.

He did it in an interview in the ‘SER Chain‘ this Monday, in which the President of the Government, however, has expressed his willingness to resume negotiations in this regard: “I would like to,” he said, before asserting that “in Spain there is no problem of separation of powers.” , but “a problem that the main opposition party has the judiciary hostage, imprisoned, captured.”

“We have had a blockade for five years, five years of a progressive coalition government. I think there is no need to make a sketch so that people understand the motivations behind this blockade,” he said, warning that “the consequences are terrible” not only for the judges, but “also for the citizens who see how Justice deteriorates even more as a consequence of an interest that is not at all constitutional.”

Thus, Sánchez has used the term ‘lawfare’ to refer to this blockade, indicating that “there is a meaning of ‘lawfare’ which is the politicization of Justice.” “Of course, this is a paradigmatic case,” he has defended, putting emphasis on “why the PP does it.” “Here there is again a patrimonial feeling of democracy, power and institutions on the part of the PP,” he said.

Normalize relations with Feijóo

Asked about normalizing relations with Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Sánchez said he had “no problem”: “I’m going to call him, of course,” said the head of the Executive, who nevertheless denounced an “asymmetric polarization” and has refused to be “on the same discursive level” as PP and Vox.

“I hear Vox say ‘Sánchez is a dictator’ and Feijóo say that I am mentally ill, the one who did not come to insult Spanish politics, that we are on the path to a dictatorship, says the PP; Vox, that we are facing a coup of State,” said Sánchez, who emphasized not using “those types of qualifiers” or “stigmatizing mental illness.” “There is an asymmetric polarization here, I refuse to think that we are at the same level as some political actors,” he stressed.