The AF sees the budget for Justice as "disappointing" and does not rule out going on strike for a salary improvement

Bet on changing the Statute of the Prosecutor's Office to mitigate the "imposition" of the attorney general in appointments

MADRID, 12 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of the Association of Prosecutors (AF), Cristina Dexeus, is disappointed with what is allocated in the project of the General State Budgets (PGE) for 2023 to Justice, which will have 2,291 million euros, 7 million more (a 0 .3%) than this year. And she is considering calling strikes as a possibility if the government does not sit down to negotiate a review of career salaries.

In an interview with Europa Press, the president of the majority association of prosecutors criticizes that the next public accounts give an idea of ​​the "null importance" that the Government gives to having a "modern, efficient and fast" Administration of Justice.

It is not understood, in his opinion, that the budget increase for Justice is that "when there are ministries such as Equality, for example, which greatly increases the budget of the previous year." Specifically, there is a 9.3% increase in the PGE for the department of Irene Montero, which will have 564 million, 48 more.

Dexeus considers that with these Budgets the Executive does not reflect a vision of the future and does not pay enough attention to the personnel deficit, an "endemic" problem in the fiscal career: "Far from correcting itself or carrying out a true study of needs, it is content to offer at most 200 seats for judges and prosecutors".

The AF also wonders when an upward salary review will be addressed, after last week the four associations of judges and the three of prosecutors signed a joint statement of complaint before the dismissal by the Government, and without a new date, of the 'remuneration table' scheduled for this month.

Dexeus explains that there is a 2003 remuneration law that obliges the Ministries of Justice and Finance to convene the salary table every five years, a term that has been "systematically breached" -- it has not met since 2008 -- without having taking into account the "very relevant" salary cuts produced in 2011.

And in the event that the negotiation continues without taking place, he believes it is "premature" to speak of legal action, although the seven associations of judges and prosecutors raised it as a possibility, but points out that "also" strikes or stoppages could be carried out like the ones they made former ministers Rafael Catalá or Dolores Delgado.

And it affects improving guard services or establishing supplements so that prosecutors want to stay in places like Ibiza or Mallorca, where the salary "does not allow them to have adequate housing for rent, which is tremendously high." Or in Catalonia, which is usually a "first choice destination when you leave the race, but not a settlement". "People stay for a couple of years and then go to other places, with which the workforce is unstable, young and there is no root," describes Dexeus.

Turning to what specifically concerns the Attorney General's Office, the president of the AF criticizes the mandate of the new head of the Public Ministry, Álvaro García Ortiz, who took office in September after the resignation of his predecessor, Dolores Delgado.

Dexeus is not surprised by the path taken by Álvaro García, who was Delgado's 'right hand' as head of the Technical Secretariat and, "in principle, selected by her to take over."

For the month that García Ortiz has been the State Attorney General, the AF lacks consensus on the appointments he has made in the Fiscal Council, such as the promotion of Delgado to Chief Prosecutor of the Military Chamber of the Supreme Court, or that of Manuel Moix, chosen as promoter of the disciplinary action of the Prosecutor's Office.

The votes of the Fiscal Council are not binding here, which is why the Association of Prosecutors is committed to reforming the Organic Statute of the Public Ministry so that there is "less imposition" of the attorney general and "greater valuation" of the majorities, than after the last elections has the AF, having half of the 12 vowels.

Dexeus assures that the Statute of the Prosecutor's Office is "out of date" in many aspects, while advocating including that the State Attorney General is not subject to political guidelines, for example by establishing that his mandate will be "five years" and that between The causes of the dismissal are not the departure of the Government that appointed him, one of the recommendations that the European Union has made to Spain.

He calls for an end to the "revolving doors", so that someone who has held important political positions in the central government or in that of an autonomous community cannot be the attorney general, or that when he ceases, he cannot return to politics within a certain time .

"It would be a step for some party to carry this next year in its electoral program, but I doubt very much that they will comply later," he says, but not before demanding a budget of its own for the Prosecutor's Office that gives it "autonomy" with respect to "interference by the political power".

Asked about the resignation of Carlos Lesmes as president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the Supreme Court, Dexeus affirms that it is "regrettable" that measures such as the previous ones are not adopted and the Government is interested in Justice to "appoint" the body of judges or positions of the Constitutional Court.

He hopes, "hopefully", that the political parties are "sensible" so that there is an agreement from which the "best" names come out, "the most professional and suitable to assume the functions of members", to work "now" on the reform of the election system and that it be the judges themselves who choose those of judicial extraction.

Dexeus regrets that there is talk "always or constantly" of Justice for the "sole purposes" of the renewal of the CGPJ, which has been in office for almost four years. "While this is being talked about, other much more relevant things are left unsaid, such as the lack of means and will to carry out a rigorous study with a vision of the future of what we intend the Administration to be," he adds.

The AF considers that the prosecutors cannot function on the basis of news, when asked about cases such as the video that went viral due to the sexist shouting at the Elías Ahuja residence hall, which has motivated the Madrid Provincial Prosecutor's Office to open an investigation .

From the association they convey their respect for the work of all prosecutors, although they specify that "at the same time that this assumption took place in a Colegio Mayor, also, in the Catalan universities, certain acts against students who were demonstrating in favor of bilingualism in Catalonia".

"Controversies always arise in the face of which as prosecutors we must act rigorously and seriously, beyond or apart from the controversy and media noise that the event has caused," he emphasizes.

More money, independence and "rigor" are the ingredients that Dexeus longs for, in short, to overcome work overload and political interests in Justice.