The attorney general faces a tense Fiscal Council this Thursday after the controversy over the position to which Delgado aspires

The majority association requests his resignation for the "crude maneuver" to shield this appointment proposal

MADRID, 8 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Fiscal Council holds a plenary session this Thursday that is preceded by a strong controversy over the decision of the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, to advance the conclave from June 19 to this Thursday to award nine discretionary positions, including that of prosecutor of the Democratic Memory and Human Rights room, to which her immediate predecessor, Dolores Delgado, aspires and which she is expected to achieve.

It was on May 11 when the new offer of places for the prosecutor's career was published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), a total of nine, among which it is worth highlighting two newly created ones, those of prosecutors of the Law Room Human Rights and Democratic Memory, and against Hate Crimes and Discrimination.

Delgado has filed his candidacy as prosecutor of the Human Rights and Democratic Memory chamber, which is also being contested by three other prosecutors: Juan Calparsoro, of the Guipúzcoa Prosecutor's Office; Luis Ibanez, of the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office; and Carlos Castresana, who practices in the Attorney General’s Office of the Court of Auditors. He stands out for the latter as he was the Spanish candidate for chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in

From the Fiscal Council they assume that Delgado will get the position, according to sources consulted by Europa Press. And this because, although the majority of the Plenary is against this appointment, it is a consultative body where the attorney general has the last word on discretionary appointments.

In addition, it should be remembered that since the entry into force of the Democratic Memory Law by which this position was created, first it was the Technical Secretariat of the State Attorney General's Office (FGE) who assumed the functions and, later, Delgado herself, by order of García Ortiz, considering that he has extensive knowledge in the matter.

Delgado rose to the top of the prosecutor's career last September, a couple of months after he resigned as attorney general citing health problems. Although that October she should have joined her position in the National Court, García Ortiz promoted her to prosecutor of the Supreme Court (TS), specifically of the Military Chamber.

In that plenary session, held on September 22, the majority of the Fiscal Council positioned itself against promoting Delgado to room prosecutor, since the six members of the Association of Prosecutors (AF) voted for another candidate and only four members --the two from the Progressive Union of Prosecutors (UPF) and the born vocals: the lieutenant prosecutor of the TS María Ángeles Sánchez Conde and the chief inspector María Antonia Sanz-- did it for the former attorney general.

The controversy broke out last Tuesday, when it was learned that García Ortiz brought forward the plenary session, initially scheduled for June 19, after the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced the electoral advance to July 23. Tax sources indicate that García Ortiz also anticipated the Fiscal Council so that the administrative procedures subsequent to the appointment proposal would not be hindered by the electoral period.

This advance caused the six members of the AF and the member of the Professional and Independent Association of Prosecutors (APIF) to ask García Ortiz to suspend the plenary session given the possibility that after July 23 there will be a new government and a new attorney general. If he did not agree to this, APIF proposed that he at least refrain from making said appointment, given the "personal and professional relationships" with Delgado.

On this, the APIF explained that García Ortiz rose to the top prosecutor's office at the hands of Delgado, going so far as to say in his first speech as head of the Public Ministry that he was thanks to the "generosity" and "honesty" of the also former minister of Justice.

However, through an internal bulletin (Infofiscalía), the head of the Public Prosecutor's Office ruled out suspending the plenary session, arguing that "there are no reasons" that justify it because holding it at this time "does not constitute a novel decision, but rather maintains the historical criterion".

To justify it, he cited two precedents. In the first place, it explained that Consuelo Madrigal --appointed by the Government of Mariano Rajoy-- proposed the appointment of the emeritus prosecutor in the Supreme Court "after the general elections held on December 20, 2015, an unsuccessful investiture and some new general elections held on June 26, 2016".

Secondly, García Ortiz recalled that there were four other discretionary appointments "once the General Courts were dissolved on March 4, 2019 and after the Plenary Session of the Fiscal Council was held on March 13, 2019 and a subsequent proposal by the then Attorney General of the State, María José Segarra", appointed by Pedro Sánchez.

The mention of Madrigal led the former State Attorney General to demand a rectification because -as she indicated in a letter- these are "heterogeneous and radically opposed situations".

Thus, he stated that during his tenure, "with the legislature close to expiring, but since time before the general elections were called on December 20, 2015," he decided to refrain from making "appointment proposals, promotions, and discretionary promotions for the sake of of the democratic quality" of its management and "in order to avoid undesirable tensions within the institution".

In the case of Olayo Eduardo González, the prosecutor of the TS pointed out that "it was not surprising that he was appointed to a leadership position, or promoted or promoted by the prosecutor emeritus, but his mere secondment as a prosecutor when, having reached retirement age, he was exercising his right to a two-year extension of which, otherwise, he would have been unjustly deprived". "Therefore, it was a quasi-automatic process," she said.

García Ortiz replied through another internal bulletin in which he insisted that Madrigal proposed up to eleven discretionary appointments after announcing the call for general elections.

In the last few hours, AF and APIF have accused García Ortiz of manipulating information to discredit Madrigal, claiming that "he did not hold any Fiscal Council to make appointments once general elections were formally called." As APIF has specified, it was held after the then Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, announced the appointment with the polls in an interview.

In addition, they have reproached García Ortiz "for using the means of communication of the State Attorney General's Office (Infofiscalía) to answer a particular question, in a kind of personal reckoning, lacking the minimum rigor of who is supposed to be a jurist of recognized prestige".

For this reason, and for the "crude maneuver" regarding Delgado, the AF has demanded his resignation. "The deterioration of the institutional image of the Public Prosecutor's Office has reached one of its highest limits, if it were still possible," said the majority association in the fiscal career.