• Justice.Sanchez places Justice Minister Dolores Delgado as attorney general to take control of the 'procés'
  • Justice. Prosecutors: "It is a slap to the independence of the Fiscal Ministry"
  • C. Proposes a reform of the Prosecutor to prevent "nonsense" as the appointment of Delgado
  • Profile.Dolores Delgado, the revolving door of the 'procés'

Never before has the proposal for the appointment of a general prosecutor by the Government been produced before the Minister of Justice took office. In this case, Moncloa wanted the name of Dolores Delgado as future state attorney general to jump to the front pages of the newspapers this Monday even before the transfer of portfolios between her and her successor in office, Judge Juan Carlos Field.

The controversial decision to designate Delgado as a new visible head of the Fiscal Ministry at a time of especially delicate, when the Pedro Sánchez Executive has committed himself to ERC in dejudicializing the process , corresponds to the president himself who wants to have a "person of his trust "in the Office of the Attorney General, as explained by the different sources consulted by EL MUNDO.

Sanchez is committed to having "direct thread" in the Prosecutor's Office with Delgado, which will go from the seat and the ministerial office to direct the Public Prosecutor's Office, an organization that must be independent and from which hundreds of sensitive judicial procedures such as those affecting are promoted to Catalonia or the corruption cases of the opposition and the PSOE itself. This transition from the policy to the head of the prosecutors has caused "stupor", "surprise" and "perplexity" among his fellow professionals.

There is almost unanimity among prosecutors in pointing out that the "appointment is very unfortunate", as it implies "a slap to the independence and impartiality of the Public Ministry" which "also leaves our image very damaged." "Going from being a minister to being a general prosecutor means breaking down the image of independence of the institution that has been achieved in recent years," say fiscal sources.

"It is typical of Venezuela . They want to control the Prosecutor's Office as it is," says a Sala prosecutor in conversation with this media. "It will have the same problem of auctoritas that Segarra , but above coming directly from the Government," adds a prosecutor of the Supreme Court. "It will be the attorney general of Sanchez, not the prosecutors," emphasizes another prosecutor who holds the highest category in the race.

Fear: "At the service of a political project"

Many fear that with their appointment the Prosecutor will "put themselves at the service of a political project" and remember that Sanchez himself boasted in the previous election campaign of "sending in the Fiscal Ministry."

The reality is that there is no precedent to the designation that the Council of Ministers of the first Coalition Government of Spain will make in the coming days. Only in 1986, the appointment of Javier Moscoso resembles, although it is not identical, since he went from being Minister of the Presidency of Felipe González to Attorney General.

Likewise, the different tax sources consulted consider Sánchez's "very risky" commitment, since Dolores Delgado "is not a prosecutor with a career weight." "The Prosecutor's Office is a complicated house and it will not be easy," others predict. There are also those who consider something negative that is "so influenced" by former judge Baltasar Garzón .

In contrast, those who support the appointment, which are minority voices, say that "he has been a minister for a year and a half and a fiscal thirty years" and adds that "he has always fought for the autonomy of prosecutors."

Along with the attempt to deflate the Catalan independence challenge, Delgado will have to approve more than 30 discretionary appointments of the dome of the Public Ministry that María José Segarra has left unrealized, who will return to the Prosecutor's Office in Seville .

The 'procés' and the 'Villarejo case'

As Minister of Justice, her mandate has not been without controversy. Delgado forced to change to the State Advocacy his legal qualification in the trial the process , going from the rebellion to the sedition prior to the cessation of the State's lawyer, Edmundo Bal , current deputy of Citizens. The Supreme Court ended up condemning the leaders of 1-O for sedition although the Prosecutor's Office always maintained the charge for rebellion.

In addition, his time at the Ministry was marked by the conversations that were published with the commissioner linked to the sewers of the State José Manuel Villarejo, where he called Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska "maricón" and alluded to what he preferred "uncle courts "when I was a prosecutor. Delgado denied at first his friendship with Villarejo, after the publication of the talks was forced to rectify and recognize that he had agreed with him three times.

Previously, he starred in another controversy when he refused to protect Supreme Judge Pablo Llarena, instructor of the 1-O cause, in the civil lawsuit filed by the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont against him before the Belgian justice.

The complaint of Citizens

In the midst of the political storm that unleashed the appointment of Delgado on Monday, Citizens registered a proposal for a reform law of the Fiscal Ministry to make it impossible to commit "nonsense" as the appointment of the former Minister of Justice as attorney general of the State.

The State's lawyer and deputy spokesman for Citizens in Congress, Edmundo Bal, said it is "another attack" by Pedro Sánchez on the institutions. And he said the case is extremely serious because we are talking about "the State Attorney General's Office, not the Government General Prosecutor's Office or the PSOE."

The proposed Citizens' law states that the attorney general cannot have held any public office in the last 10 years. In addition, he will be required to be a "renowned jurist" who has practiced his profession for at least 25 years. The mandate will last six years, to protect it the political fluctuations.

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  • Citizens
  • PSOE
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Juan Carlos Field
  • Edmundo Bal
  • Dolores Delgado
  • Supreme Court
  • ERC
  • José Manuel Villarejo
  • Carles Puigdemont
  • Catalonia

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