• Sentence: Six years in jail for Griñán and nine years of disqualification for Chaves
  • Processes: The 'ERE case' and the 'Gürtel case', two parallel trials
  • Corruption The Board established an "absolute lack of control" to distribute 680 million

The former president of the Junta de Andalucía (1990-2009) and the PSOE (2000-2012), Manuel Chaves , has broken his silence today about the ERE ruling in which he has been sentenced to nine years of disqualification for prevarication, and he has done so to say that he is a victim, to ensure that everything he did was legal, to announce that he is going to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court and to denounce that a favorable climate for conviction has flown over the court.

In fact, neither a request for forgiveness, nor recognition of errors, nor assessment of the damage that corruption has done to democracy and institutions, in addition to its party, the PSOE, which has lost power in Andalusia after almost four decades of hegemony.

Chaves said in an interview in the Cadena Ser that his sentence is the result of a climate contrary to the accused that was consolidated during the years of instruction of the ERE. According to his vision, the judicial process has been subjected to "political, media and social pressures", so that it ended up creating "an environment of presumption of guilt" about José Antonio Griñán , Gaspar Zarrías , Magdalena Álvarez , himself and the rest of the damned

"The process, from the first moment to the last, has not been abstracted from this climate of guilt," Chaves insisted. After saying this, he has affirmed at the same time that he does not know if it has "influenced or not the judges".

Chaves has explained the thesis he has defended since the case broke out in 2009 and that the court that tried him did not accept: that the Andalusian government he presided acted always within the law and that the excesses that occurred in the 680 fraud millions of euros from the public treasury were committed by "rotten apples", according to the already famous expression that the PSOE used at the time. If someone at any given time could commit an "abuse or illegality in the procedure," then "Justice falls on those people," he said this morning.

Political responsibility

The former Andalusian president has recognized a "political responsibility" in the case, but recalling that he already assumed it "at the time" with the withdrawal from the PSOE and resignation as a deputy. He has also admitted that "it is possible" that he was wrong, but only by choosing "people" and "when it comes to watching."

Nothing else. He then recalled that "the sentence is not firm" and has confirmed that he will appeal it to the Supreme Court, because he respects it but does not share it. "I have the conviction of the legality of all decisions taken in the Governing Council while I was president," Chaves insisted. He added that the Governing Council he chaired "was never warned" of illegality or impairment of public funds. All these arguments were already exposed during the trial, but this did not prevent the conviction of the PSOE leaders.

Finally, Chaves wanted to emphasize that "in no line" of the sentence is said to be a member of the PSOE that has been enriched; that the PSOE has been financed illegally; that an electoral campaign has been financed, or that there has been "a PSOE customer network".

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Know more

  • PSOE
  • Supreme Court
  • Manuel Chaves
  • Andalusia
  • José Antonio Griñán
  • ERE case

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