The appointment of Delgado for prosecutor of Democratic Memory muddies the Fiscal Council

The controversy is served within the fiscal career by the call of the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, of a Fiscal Council for next June 8 with the intention of making various discretionary appointments of the fiscal leadership, among them the prosecutor of the Sala de Memoria Democrática, a position to which the former Minister of Justice, Dolores Delgado, aspires. If they occur, they would be the last appointments before the Pedro Sánchez government began to take office and the current attorney general ceased to be in office.

According to tax sources reported to EL MUNDO, the establishment of the aforementioned Fiscal Council caught the members of this body by surprise on Monday, who had already been informed of the holding of another meeting of the Council scheduled for June 19.. The directors were summoned on Monday to this new meeting where the only item on the agenda is the aforementioned discretionary contest. García Ortiz's call came just two hours after President Sánchez announced the electoral advance.

The mere express call of the Fiscal Council generated both surprise and discomfort among multiple councilors that make up the body and who consider that García Ortiz's “maneuver” involves appointing Delgado as prosecutor of Democratic Memory before he is dismissed as attorney general along with the Socialist government after the general elections on July 23.

Yesterday, the Professional and Independent Association of Prosecutors (APIF) sent a letter to the prosecutor's office asking the attorney general to suspend the call for the Fiscal Council. In the letter, the vocal Salvador Viada, prosecutor of the Supreme Court, maintains that “it is not remembered that this has happened on another occasion, a Council with important appointments, summoned with the utmost urgency, just when the Parliament is dissolved and a new electoral process”.

Similarly, Viada explains that “in a few months, a new government will be formed, and perhaps a new State Attorney General will be appointed.”. I believe that -from a perspective of institutional respect- that it would be convenient to leave these appointments until a general attorney, with four years to go in office, can work appointing the aforementioned Chamber prosecutors according to a project for the future and not because of short-termism and the urgency of appointing the last senior positions of the Prosecutor's Office that is possible before the expiration of the mandate.

“much alarm”

The APIF stresses that there is “a lot of alarm” due to the call within the prosecutor's office and lists the reasons why García Ortiz should refrain from appointing Delgado if the meeting is not called off. “All prosecutors have the duty to act impartially, from the Head of the Public Prosecutor's Office to the last prosecutor in the ranks,” he adds.

Among the causes of abstention that the APIF member highlights is the fact that when Delgado was appointed State Attorney General in January 2020, she chose García Ortiz as chief prosecutor of the Technical Secretariat, “thus promoting him to the first category of Prosecutor Career, and becoming the youngest Prosecutor in the Chamber” and that “on two different occasions in the course of a year he promoted his wife to two freely appointed positions”.

In addition, the member points out that the appointment of Delgado as prosecutor of the Chamber is currently being challenged before the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court, a body that has not yet issued a sentence.

For its part, in the majority Association of Prosecutors there is also deep discomfort with the movement of the attorney general and it is not ruled out “at all” to also request that the prosecutors' discretionary position be postponed.

Currently, the Attorney General submits his appointment proposal to the Government, with the Council of Ministers making the last decision on discretionary positions.. In the case of the position of prosecutor of the Sala de Memoria Democrática, the former Minister of Justice, Dolores Delgado, has been aspiring to occupy this position for years. García Ortiz already promoted her to the highest category of the Prosecutor's Office, as a prosecutor of the Robed Chamber, as soon as her successor in office was appointed. If now, as is foreseeable, decide to propose her for prosecutor of the Democratic Memory Room, the appointment will not be peaceful. Together with Delgado, prosecutors Juan Carlparsoro, Luis Ibáñez Cuesta and Carlos Castresana are running for this position.

For their part, the Fiscal Council is also expected to decide on the prosecutor of the Chamber against Hate Crimes, another newly created position requested by four prosecutors.

Against the position adopted by Álvaro García Ortiz, the state attorneys general, Consuelo Madrigal and María José Segarra, acted in a radically different way. As soon as it became known that there was a call for general elections on the horizon, they decided not to make the discretionary appointments to the Prosecutor’s Office in order to act with “decency”, “prudence” and “institutional respect”.