"This government will always defend the judges." The Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, insisted on Monday on the message he has been sending since last week when tension between the Government and the Judiciary skyrocketed as a result of the spokesperson for Junts in Congress, Míriam Nogueras, describing several judges as "indecent". mostly Supreme Court justices. Since then, Bolaños has been trying to mend relations with the judiciary, and this was highlighted at the ceremony for the delivery of the offices of the new prosecutors, which was also attended by the alternate president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Vicente Guilarte, and the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, who stressed the importance of "institutional loyalty".
Last week, the crisis between the executive and judicial branches was accentuated, especially as a result of Nogueras' words, which led the acting president of the Supreme Court, Francisco Marín Castán, to suspend the meeting he had planned with the Minister of Justice. This week is also expected to be intense because that meeting has to be held, which was initially set for this Tuesday, but due to scheduling problems of the minister it has been moved to Thursday, December 21, at 17:30 p.m. That same day, in the morning, the Minister himself and the Attorney General of the State have to appear before the Justice Commission of the Congress. While waiting for what those appointments bring, Bolaños has begun the week as he ended it: assuring that the government is unequivocally on the side of the judges, "in the face of any questioning, wherever it comes from."
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"I will never tire of saying that this government will always defend judges, magistrates and prosecutors and their integrity," said the minister before the latest class of prosecutors. Bolaños' words also carried an implicit message for the PP, which has blocked the renewal of the CGPJ for five years and whose senator José Antonio Monago accused magistrate José Ricardo de Prada of exercising lawfare against the PP in the Gürtel case a few days ago. "In a democracy, the playing field is the institutions and we must all maintain that institutionality and that loyalty to the democratic system. We all can and must maintain it. All of them, without exception", said the minister, for whom defending the members of the judicial and prosecutorial career "is also defending the rule of law" and, therefore, he added, he will do so "as many times as necessary".
In the same vein, the Attorney General of the State has expressed himself, who has stressed the importance of "institutional loyalty" and "respect for the law". "Outside the law, outside the institutions there is nothing, that is why it is so important to strengthen and safeguard them, that is why institutional loyalty is so important as a unifying element of those who understand that the social and democratic rule of law is the best possible form of coexistence, as it has been for more than 45 years," said García Ortiz, who this Thursday presents his project for a new mandate before the Justice Commission of Congress.
García Ortiz addressed the new prosecutors, to whom he explained that one of their "indispensable" missions is the defense of the rule of law. "It is a daily, continuous task, and we exercise it where it corresponds to the prosecutors, in the exercise of jurisdiction and before the courts. In that space, which is ours, it is an irreplaceable task and we are the piece that the constituent chose to preserve it. The primacy of the law as an expression of the will of the people is the key to the rule of law, our respect for the rule and institutions are the path that gives us security, that gives security to the society we serve," said García Ortiz. "We are not the masters of justice, but its servants," he warned.
The ceremony for handing over the offices of the new prosecutors, held in the auditorium of the Complutense University of Madrid, confirmed the trend that has been set in recent years: of the 100 new prosecutors, with an average age of 29 years, 73 are women. The number one of the graduating class, María del Carmen Falcó Ruiz, is also a woman, and she was in charge of delivering a few words on behalf of the entire class. Falcó highlighted the "satisfaction of achieving a goal" and highlighted "impartiality" and "submission to the law" as values of the Prosecutor's Office.
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