The Central Electoral Board (JEC) has agreed this Wednesday to open a second disciplinary file against the Minister Spokesperson for the Government, Isabel Rodríguez, for once again breaching her duty of neutrality in the institutional press conferences that she offers in Moncloa after the Council of Ministers.
After two warnings, the JEC already agreed a week ago to open a disciplinary file against the minister, which could lead to a fine of between 300 and 3,000 euros, and this Wednesday it has decided to start another one for her words at the press conference on May 3, and again at the request of the PP.
It is the fourth consecutive week that the arbitration body reprimands the spokesperson for these press conferences. You are reminded of article 50.2 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG), which prohibits “any act organized or financed” by the public powers “that contain allusions to the achievements or the achievements obtained by public authorities”.
According to a resolution to which Europa Press has had access, the manifestations of Isabel Rodríguez at the press conference on May 3 “allegedly violated the prohibition that derives from art.50.2 of the LOREG·”, for which reason it is appropriate to open a new file to determine if this infraction is deserving of a sanction. The decision has had a private vote.
For this purpose, one of its Supreme Court magistrates, Fernando Pignatelli Meca, has been appointed as instructor of this second file, and Mr. Carlos Gutiérrez Vicén, senior lawyer of Congress and secretary of the Board, as secretary.
“Extreme diligence”
The minister is also urged to issue the appropriate instructions so that demonstrations considered electioneering can be removed from the web and that “in future institutional acts, she will be extremely diligent to avoid violating the principle of neutrality that public powers are obliged to respect during the process electoral”.
The PP also asked to impose the maximum fine on Rodríguez, but the JEC says that this will be seen when the disciplinary file is concluded. The arbitration body also refuses to extend a similar warning to the other members of the Government, “because there is no record of new violations of article 50.2 of the LOREG by any of them.”