Since the promulgation of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, 17 people – 14 men and 3 women – have carried out the responsibility of being attorney general of the State. None of them have been spared from being the subject of significant censure during his mandate. In fact, in the legal world there is a joke (or not so much) that the most difficult public responsibilities in Spain, in the sense of being the subject of furious criticism, including the most arbitrary and irrational, are three: president of the Government, coach of the national soccer team and state attorney general.
Let's do, however, a memory exercise: does anyone remember today the rivers of ink that raised the march of attorneys general like Eligio Hernández, in 1994; Eduardo Torres-Dulce, in 2014; or, even much more recently, Dolores Delgado, in 2022?
Where does this burden that each attorney general carries from the day after taking office come from? Without a doubt, article 124.4 of the Constitution, which states: “The State Attorney General will be appointed by the King, at the proposal of the Government, after hearing the General Council of the Judiciary.” The connection, in terms of appointment, of the attorney general with the Government becomes the justification for all criticism of the right or wrong decisions made by any attorney general. Almost 46 years after our constitutional text was promulgated, we can already say that there is widespread dissatisfaction in the social sphere, in the political sphere and also in the legal sphere regarding the manner of appointment of the attorney general. The political parties, which are the only ones entitled to resolve it, should spend their energy, rather than undermining the institution of the public prosecutor's office as a crude excuse to achieve their political objectives, on striving to find formulas that allow for greater consensus to address a necessary reform. constitutional in this matter.
There is another reflection that now takes on particular importance. Despite the ruckus to which all state attorneys general have been subjected since 1979, this has not affected the institution of the public prosecutor's office; It has been modernized, invigorated and increased its public prestige like very few democratic institutions in Spain. The year 2007 appears as a refoundation date for prosecutors. The institution, from that moment on, took an important step towards greater autonomy and independence of the Executive Branch by preventing it from making the decision to unilaterally dismiss the attorney general for political reasons, authorizing only objective causes for revocation of the position. At the same time, the principle of specialization was decisively embraced as the best alternative to combat increasingly sophisticated and transnational crime. The result has been spectacular.
Today, the Public Prosecutor's Office occupies in its own right a position of leadership and well-deserved prestige in many matters (violence against women, disabilities, human trafficking and immigration, road safety, computer crime, among many others). This new position has not been given to us, we have earned it with our work and by being united in the defense of our autonomy.
For some time now, however, very dark clouds have been looming in the judicial ecosystem. Let us be clear, we prosecutors are not concerned that in a specific matter the court does not assume our criteria, nor are we alarmed by the fact that in a matter with media significance the prosecutor's opinion is criticized by the media. It is a different matter, however, that as a way to pressure and punish a prosecutor for his actions in a specific case, his physical appearance is mocked, his professional solvency is publicly doubted even though he is accredited with an unquestionable career, or, It is even insinuated without ambiguity and without any basis that this prosecutor serves dark political interests.
In recent times, three prosecutors, great professionals, have lived these experiences that, here comes the truly important thing, are not only unfair and unpleasant for them, but are aimed at torpedoing the functioning of a fundamental institution for justice in Spain. We prosecutors have to be united to defend the autonomy that it has cost us so much effort to achieve and whose limits we want to expand; Only by being united will we be truly strong. Finally, society must know that prosecutors do not serve political interests, that our only principles are legality and impartiality; that the institution is equipped with a system of checks and balances that works and is effective; that we have legal mechanisms that allow us to report pressure if there is any and that therefore the trust that has been placed in us and that we perceive will not be disappointed. Don't let the sound and fury confuse you. We are by and for society.
Félix Martín González
is a prosecutor at the Barcelona Provincial Prosecutor's Office; vice president and co-spokesperson of the UPF.
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