I met Minister Marlaska years ago in an awards ceremony . I was there to cover the event, although I only covered Marlaska's presence. It compensated me. The minister will not even remember, but in the event they presented him with an award. In Madrid, event and prize are consubstantial words. That day the prize was granted by Sanghai magazine and the place was one of those old cinemas of the Gran Vía that are the same for a broken one as for a ripping.

From that night I remember that it was cold with balls and the judge wore a pink scarf around his neck . The scarf was a nod to sexual identity, which in turn constituted the leitmotiv of the party. At that time a pink scarf would not have taken her or Threshold, which in a matter of scarves had taken everything. Marlaska's case was different. When he landed in Madrid from the Basque Country, he had already become known as a judge and as an LGTBI militant. The latter confessed on occasion (I read it in an interview that Rosa Montero did in the Weekly Country). I don't remember if the word visibility was already used then, but that interview achieved that effect. With Marlaska out of the closet, the doors of the courts and cathedrals could now open wide .

When he picked up the Sanghai magazine prize, he began his career as a star judge, a modality in which we had only met Judge Garzón, who was Andalusian but told very bad jokes. Garzón had an ephemeral step through politics and soon paid the consequences.

Grande Marlaska has also been tempted by politics, where the rigorous sense of Justice applies . "Take off your gown, Fernando," some colleagues tell him, pointing out certain positions that should be made more flexible . However, his entry into politics has allowed him to display the expressiveness that he repressed while he was judge of the National Court and had the march of elegant inspired by Bilbao itself.

This week, the opposition has touched his balls again. Those are the things that a minister from the judiciary does not quite understand. Since the manifestation of the Pride of the year 2018, the complaint of Citizens appears in the press every two times, accusing him of having thrown the activists of the escrache. The minister defends himself. Rather, the minister does not need to defend himself because it is not his competence to produce police reports or keep state secrets in his office drawer . In their own environment they emphasize that Fernando has always been very respectful, not only with the separation of powers (but also) but with the independence of the different professionals.

Grande-Marlaska has been one of the best rated judges in Spain. Politics seduces him, even if it is more scar in the recognition of merits, but a good judge can never be a bad politician. In any case, he will be a conscientious and strict politician. Item more: if professional merit has always accompanied you, personal merit has been overwhelming. It is very difficult to find someone who does not speak wonders of Fernando Grande-Marlaska; Marlaska dry for the country.

He has a reputation for affectionate and polite, close, smiling. Say hello all the time . First ask the first name and the first time it comes up, release it. He also touches his friends a lot, and let's not say his friends anymore, but it's not sob. In the morning, when he arrives at the office, he kisses all his collaborators. He has made touch, an art, and caresses, a poem.

He likes animals. He has three, all adopted: Martina, the gauge, is his favorite; Pepa and Duende, are street. The three live in the ministry with Fermando and with Gorka, her husband. At night he usually stays in office for a while. It is the moment of maximum family intimacy: the doors open and the dogs come down to the reunion . It is not a home to use, but one gets used to everything. Even to the continued presence of the Civil Guard.

The biography of Grande-Marlaska is more than a list of consecutive data for the curriculum. In your case, the details are very important, for example, those moments of lively expressiveness and full of meaning. One of the most disturbing episodes of Minister Marlaska's life happens in 2008, when he still lives in Bilbao and the police discover the plan to attack him . The plan was not elaborated in detail, but it would be a bomb attack on the floor that had been bought in Ezcaray. Removing iron from the operation, the judge commented that they were legal reasons. A long time later, with regard to some reflections expressed in his book Neither sorrow nor fear, the minister revealed that much worse than the shock of the attack was his mother's estrangement after making his homosexuality public,

Fernando already knew Gorka, the couple with whom he built his life, and decided that it was time to present him at home and formally leave the closet.

In good time. It was planned to be a mere process and yet it lasted for years, Angela Marlaska, the mother, did not know how to process the news and remained in bed for fifteen days. The disgust, however, would not end there either. Six long years were mother and son without speaking. Luckily, the balm of time eased the tension created and when she (Angela Marlaska) died, two years ago soon, love had brought them together again.

These painful episodes marked Marlaska's personal life. As a result of the reflection process in which he was immersed, Marlaska wrote the book Neither sorrow nor fear a title that has become the motto of his life and that gave rise to the tattoo that surrounds his wrist and that of Gorka. The phrase is part of a poem that owes its authorship to Chilean Raúl Zurita , who housed it in a stone of the Atacama desert and promises to last a lifetime.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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