Dolores Delgado García, former State Attorney General: "I don't care what they say, I resign because my body is broken"

Dolores Delgado, former state attorney general, in a file image. Emilio Naranjo Emilio Naranjo (EFE)

Dolores Delgado García resigned on Monday from her position as state attorney general after a two-and-a-half-year term full of controversy, shaken from the judicial right and questioned from the main conservative parties.

The PP set last week as a condition to renew the General Council of the Judiciary that they dismiss Delgado.

But the 59-year-old attorney general had previously told President Pedro Sánchez of her intention to leave office due to her numerous health problems, which prevented her from even following institutional meetings or making trips normally, according to this interview.

Ask.

Quit just for health?

Response.

Absolutely.

I could have had other reasons to leave, because they have attacked me a lot, because they have told me this or that, but it is for health.

I can not continue.

I can't be canceling trips because I can't get on a plane, and I can't be canceling institutional meetings one afternoon because I need to lie down, and I can't crawl and today I have a bad back, but I have to have an operation for two herniated discs in the left side.

When am I going to do it?

And I have other things.

The first thing I'm going to do when I leave this position is a whole day of doctors.

I couldn't continue.

To be here you have to be 100%.

P.

The PP demanded last week to renew the Judiciary that you no longer head the State Attorney General's Office.

Are you aware that someone could interpret your resignation in that key?

R.

I don't care what they say.

I would never resign if I am thinking about what one or the other is going to say.

I take a step to the side.

I am very happy and I feel very proud of what we have done as a team of men and women, of what I did in the Ministry of Justice, and one day everything we generate will be heard despite the noise that has been around many stuff.

And here in the State Attorney General's Office the same thing has happened.

We have done a lot of things, with a very clear and marked project in vulnerable, human rights, gender.

We have had the issue of Juana Rivas, now we have the investigation of what happened to the dead immigrants in Melilla, we have had the matter of the king emeritus, we have appointed 46% of women to managerial positions in the prosecutor's career... On issues of transparency,

P.

Was it hard for you to make the decision or did the doctors push you to make it?

R.

I started with strong back problems last February.

I was enduring as I could;

I was admitted twice, I have two herniated discs... I give myself 120% and life does not give me.

I cannot be here in these conditions, so I have discussed it with the president.

To be here, you have to be 100%, because physically you have to be up to it, and that means that at eight in the evening you are the same as at eight in the morning.

Q.

Now what?

R.

I return to the National High Court, I am a prosecutor.

I'm not going to work in a private company, I don't want to.

I have always moved in public spaces.

All my physical problems remain, but I won't have the stress of being a state attorney general, [other jobs] don't require the physical delivery of being a state attorney general.

I have 20 business days to take office at my destination in the National High Court, as an anti-jihadist prosecutor.

Afterwards, I am going to enjoy my vacation for the first time in four years.

And then I'll have to do a lot of medical tests.

P.

There are those who say that you have now resigned so that you can be appointed prosecutor of the Democratic Memory chamber in the Supreme Court.

R.

I have done it because my body is broken.

And, if I have to wait for nobody to say anything, I would never find the time or the moment.

P.

With the appointment of your substitute, who will be Álvaro García Ortiz, until now the head of the technical secretary of the Prosecutor's Office, did the President of the Government not object to you?

R.

Álvaro García has an in-depth knowledge of the race, he knows it like the back of his hand.

He comes from 20 years in the territory, he comes from the base, he has been president of the Progressive Union of Prosecutors, he is an expert in the environment and in forest fires.

In the time that he has been here he has managed all the institutional relations.

I am very happy because I believe that he is and is going to be the best attorney general in the State that this career has never had.

P.

And the feeling that the controversies that have followed you may have had to do with your resignation now?

R.

I repeat that I cannot continue even if I want to.

This position is very demanding to be useful to society and preserve the rights of citizens.

And that is not compatible with a person who is not 100%.

I don't care what they say... but I want to emphasize that I am very satisfied with the work we have done, of the people I have proposed to take charge of essential areas of the Prosecutor's Office.

To give a few examples, with Teresa Peramato in gender violence, with Beatriz Sánchez in foreign affairs, with Eduardo Esteban in minors, with the deputy prosecutor of the Supreme Court… I am very happy with the great team that remains here.

And with all the reports that we have made and with the training that we have given.

Despite all the noise, all the hoaxes and everything else, it has been worth it.

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