Dolores Delgado defends his appointment: “Having been a minister should not be seen as a weakness”

Among critics for partisanship and for his past as a member of the Government, Dolores Delgado has defended in Congress that having been Minister of Justice "should not be seen as a weakness, but as a strength to be a State Attorney General", and promised to that in his work in this new position prime "public service". The former minister has appeared on Thursday for three and a half hours before the Congressional Justice Commission to certify that she meets the requirements that are required to be appointed. Delgado has been questioned by PP, Citizens and Vox, who have questioned whether it meets the requirements of suitability to serve as the head of the State Attorney General.

"In Spain, the formula of choice is a hybrid system: part of the Government, but it separates from the Executive during its work as a prosecutor and the three powers of the State participate. It is the State as a whole that intervenes in the appointment of the attorney general of the State, "said Delgado in Congress. "It should not attract attention that those who exercise as prosecutors have held another position," he said, while regretting that the election system is "in doubt." "Reducing the Prosecutor's Office to an institution permanently under suspicion and dependent on the political fluctuations is unfair," said the former minister, who has pledged to maintain the independence of the institution. "We are autonomous and responsible."

This is the last legal procedure to access the position that has a strong rejection by the opposition parties for having jumped directly from the Ministry of Justice to the Attorney General's Office, as well as for the recordings that link it with the retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo. In fact, the analysis of the formal requirements for his appointment that took place on January 16 in the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) was far from being a mere procedure, causing the rupture of the governing body of the judges with a guarantee that obtained 12 votes in favor and seven against.

The Executive, who defends his right to choose the person he considers most suitable for the position, underlines the long career as a prosecutor of Delgado and guarantees that he will act with "absolute independence." But neither PP nor Vox nor Ciudadanos believe that they will exercise autonomously and fear that it will be another piece in the Government's strategy to "dejudicialize" the Catalan political conflict. Delgado will present his projects for the Prosecutor's Office to the deputies and they will have the opportunity to ask and question their objectives, although there will be no final vote.