Thursday, March 28

The Ayuso case will stay at home

The truth, on this side of the Pyrenees; the mistake, on the other side

Bernard von Brentano

It’s not Ayuso, it’s power. The future power even more than the present. In the case of the conflict of competences between the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office for the Ayuso Case, even for once, political or ideological issues do not seem to matter, but rather a struggle to prevent the European Public Prosecutor’s Office from ending up monopolizing by absorption competences that the they would become a kind of special supranational instance and perhaps elective.

As is known, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has addressed the Spanish Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office to request the delivery of the entire file related to the case of the masks of Ayuso’s brother, -the one that pissed off Casado and García Egea and that by the logical peperas has led them to the bloody street – alleging that they were paid with European ERDF funds and that a crime of fraud against the EU budget and embezzlement could have been committed, which in his opinion would “drag” the entire case, all the crimes , to that European instance that, attention, is an investigating instance, that is to say, that performs the task that investigating judges carry out in Spain. The Luzón prosecutor – who is carrying out the preliminary investigation proceedings, nothing judicial yet – has said that nanay, that he does not see such fraud since the money went without discussion to masks and that what is at stake here is to determine if there are indications of influence peddling, prevarication or negotiation prohibited to officials. So he has pulled the conflict of jurisdiction procedure and has taken it to the State Attorney General so that, after hearing the Board of Prosecutors in a mandatory but non-binding manner, decide if he has to release all the proceedings and give them to Concepción Sabadell , the Deputy Prosecutor of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Dolores Delgado has called the meeting for tomorrow. She is in favor of Luzon continuing with her proceedings, whether or not the European Public Prosecutor’s Office opens a procedure, and as far as one can go by probing, it is most likely that the majority of the Chamber’s prosecutors will support that idea. In any case, since the vote is not binding, everything indicates that Europe will not be able to carry out all the investigative steps. Does this mean something in terms of the judicial future of Isabel Díaz Ayuso? Various sources suggest no. In other words, it’s not that if the European prosecutor takes it, it’s worse for her and if Luzon takes it, it’s better, or vice versa. Rather, what is being resolved here is whether any entry of European funds, any relationship between these and a case, forces Spain to deliver all the instructions to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. So it’s not just about Ayuso but about laying the foundations for how this is going to work from now on. It is a matter of competences, of power as well and, of course, a question of the future use that may be made of the decision made.

The issue of “trawling” competitions, like fishing boats, has given many problems in the past, since it can be used by the parties to try to subtract the competition or, so to speak, to choose it. As a clear example is the application of the Law of the Jury in our country. This law, in its first interpretation, came to say that if several crimes had occurred in one act and one was not within the jurisdiction of the jury, the jury would drag the whole matter to the professional court. Needless to say, until it was corrected, there were many occasions in which even the prosecutor himself tried to avoid the nuisance of the jury and that a plenary agreement of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court in 2017 was enough to “legislate” and reverse that emptying.

A similar thing could happen with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office if finally that “drag” allowed those who thought that Europe would be more bearable to choose that instance of investigation and there is no need to exemplify here. That is what the leadership of the Prosecutor’s Office will try to resolve tomorrow, if they consider that any presence of European funds that could be suspected of a crime or even if not – because nobody believes in this case that there is embezzlement of the funds that did go to masks – could be swept away in any case.

Everyone loves Europe very much, Spain has been very favorable to the creation of this new Public Prosecutor’s Office, but when it comes down to it, everyone defends their property. Or as tax sources say: there can be no power without limits and the only limits of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office are its powers. That is why it is important to settle how wide and long they are, not so much for Ayuso, but to mark the ground for the future. And while this is being decided, the Anti-corruption actions on the strange case of the brother who appeared at the friend’s livestock company to hire masks, who offered himself with a minimalist letter, are stopped.

In any case, if the entire investigation were left in the hands of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, then Sol could no longer say that there is no criminal investigation, because there would be. The procedure provided for in this case is that of other European countries in which prosecutors instruct and judges of guarantees ensure fundamental rights during the investigation. In this specific case, it would be Concha Sabadell who would instruct and a judge from the National High Court who would act as a judge of guarantees, with resources provided before the Criminal Chamber.

Whoever investigates it, in Puerta del Sol they are still very nervous even if they deny it, because there are many questions that accumulate –including the fact that there is the same document with a different seal according to what was delivered to the press and according to what was stated in the transparency portal – so they do nothing but repeat that they say nothing and that everything is already transparent. Ayuso continues to affirm, with irritation, that it has been shown that “there is no corruption”. That only shows us that for her and her team it is only corruption that the money disappears and that things that deserve as much care as influence peddling, they do not even think that they could be a crime. And they are, boy are they, a corruption like a piano.

So now perhaps you have to thank Dolores Delgado because the investigation is still a mere preliminary Anti-Corruption procedure and not an investigation procedure by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, although, it doesn’t matter, in this matter we have to go as far as the bottom and Luzon is also no guarantee that it will not reach it, it is more indomitable than all that.

What a pity not to see the face of García Egea and Casado while all this is happening!



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