A total of 29 magistrates –11 of them from the Supreme Court– have so far supported the four criminal proceedings that will be the elephant in the room of the 41st Congress of the PSOE, which begins this Friday in Seville. All four have one thing in common: they affect positions and people linked to the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez. Corruption crimes under investigation in three of them.
Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez; his brother, David Sánchez; his attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, and who was his right-hand man in the party and government, José Luis Ábalos, face criminal investigations without any sign of imminent filing, regardless of what Moncloa has affirmed in recent months that this The closing decision would fall, in particular, on the case investigated by judge Juan Carlos Peinado against the wife of the head of government.
The force of facts has led socialists to publicly abandon this argument. In private, they criticize judiciocracy of a judicial system that they consider conservative and “thrown into the woods” to put the government in difficulty.
This assessment clashes with the fact that several of the 11 judges in the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court are progressive. Suzanne Polo She was the speaker of the resolution – unanimous – which opened on October 30 a trial against the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, for the alleged leak of an email that the defender of Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s boyfriend sent to the public prosecutor’s office for economic crimes.
In this document, Alberto González Amador’s lawyer acknowledged that he had committed two tax crimes and offered the prosecutor the possibility of reaching an agreement to avoid prison.
The leak of this email to the press allowed the government and socialist leaders to spend eight months talking about “confessed criminal” who is the partner of the Madrid president.
But the revelation that Juan Lobato, general secretary of the Socialist Federation of Madrid until his resignation 48 hours ago, sent a “WhatsApp” to the notary who reported the possible leak of this e-mail from the Presidency of the Government , provoked a legal proceeding that Until now he was surrounded by the prosecution and began to escalate towards Moncloa.
The socialist congress will await the declaration that Lobato must make today before the instructor of the Supreme Court, Ángel Hurtado. From this appearance of suspicions of responsibility towards Pilar Sánchez Acera and even towards the current minister Oscar Lopez. The first was head of López’s cabinet when, from his strategic position as director of Sánchez’s cabinet, he sent Lobato messages regarding González Amador’s self-incriminating email on March 14.
These messages will be known today by the instructor of the Supreme Court and by the parties involved in the trial opened against García Ortiz, including the lawyer of González Amador, who carries out the popular action.
Its sensitivity is also progressive. Leopoldo Puentethe instructor appointed (in turn) by the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court to investigate the deputy José Luis Ábalos, Minister of Transport and organizational secretary of the PSOE until Sánchez fired him for reasons he did not never explained.
Puente, who has been associated with Judges for Democracy, is one of the most modern judges of the Chamber, which he arrived in 2020 at the hands of the then progressive members of the General Council of the Judiciary Rafael Mozo and Clara Martínez de Careaga.
Appointed investigator of the Ábalos affair on November 5, Puente has not yet accepted any procedure but it is certain that businessman Víctor de Aldama will be called to testifywhose confession before National Court judge Ismael Moreno on November 21 seriously compromised Sánchez’s former number two. According to Aldama, Ábalos charged illegal commissions for public contracts which allegedly amounted to 650,000 euros.
Another progressive magistrate, Andres Martínez Arrietawas the speaker of the resolution opening the file to former minister Ábalos. In this court, there were also Ana Ferrer And Andres Palomoof this same sensitivity.
The Supreme Court is one of nine judicial bodies that have intervened or are doing so in these processes. THE National court (with the instructor of the “Koldo case”, Ismael Moreno), the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (with six magistrates from the Civil and Criminal Chamber), the Madrid Provincial Court (with three magistrates who supported Peinado’s investigation into Begoña Gómez), the Badajoz Provincial Court (with four magistrates who endorsed the approach of Beatriz Biedma concerning the brother of the President of the Government) and four investigating courts different decisions were made regarding the investigation of Begoña Gómez, Ábalos, David Sánchez and García Ortiz.
And it could be that, based on the evidence Aldama claims to have, the list of people under investigation will be expanded to include socialist leaders accused of alleged corrupt practices, such as the current Secretary of State. ‘Socialist Organization, Santos Cerdan.
