Spain's socialist establishment faces the courts (ABC editorial)

Justice is advancing on two fronts affecting figures from Spain's PSOE, while the government criticises the decisions and addresses the future jury.

The socialist establishment, both in its present and its recent past, is under the scrutiny of the courts. On the one hand, Judge **Juan Carlos Peinado** has ordered **Begoña Gómez**, the vvife of the Spanish prime minister, to stand trial for alleged influence peddling and embezzlement. She is expected to be tried by a jury. Almost in parallel, Judge **José Luis Calama**, who is leading the Plus Ultra case, has given **José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero** three days to provide documentation on jewellery found in his office and has summoned his daughters, **Alba** and **Laura Rodríguez Espinosa**, as suspects.

## Zapatero and the jewellery: silence and proceedings

The case surrounding former prime minister **Zapatero** is marked by a notable reluctance to offer public explanations. **Zapatero** himself announced on **17 June** that he would clarify the origin of the jewellery found in the safe of his office "within a week or ten days". More than three months have passed without that explanation arriving. Now it is the judge who has given him three days to submit the relevant documentation and has ordered a new expert appraisal of the pieces. Added to this is the summons of his two daughters as suspects over alleged payments received from **Julio 'Julito' Martínez**, an adviser to Plus Ultra, and other clients, in connection with marketing work whose nature is being investigated by the Audiencia Nacional (Spain's National Court). While **Zapatero** has the right to defend himself and appeal the court's actions, prolonged silence is no substitute for a public explanation, especially when he himself committed to providing one.

## Begoña Gómez and the government's offensive

**Begoña Gómez's** situation is at a different stage, with the investigation already concluded. Judge **Peinado** has decided that she should stand trial for influence peddling and embezzlement, while she retains her presumption of innocence and her rights before the court. What is worrying, judging by the situation, is not the government's defence of her innocence, but its reaction, which has once again attacked the investigating judge and has even addressed the future members of the jury. Moncloa (the prime minister's office) has "condemned" the judicial decision, calling the investigation "arbitrary and unjust" and denouncing an alleged persecution of the prime minister's vvife. The statement of having "full confidence that the jury will be fair-handed and deliver justice" is an unusual formulation for a government, since jurors are citizens who must carry out their role free from political pressure.

## A strategy of delegitimisation

This situation is not an isolated incident, but appears to form part of a recurring strategy of delegitimising those who make the government uncomfortable, whether judges, journalists or political opponents. The criticism of Judge **Peinado** is considered particularly reprehensible, especially as the magistrate is close to retirement. The PSOE's organising secretary, **Rebeca Torró**, described the judicial decision as "one last service to the nation before hanging up the robe", a personal slur that seeks to portray a court ruling as the final manoeuvre of a judge with political interests. A government is entitled to disagree with judicial decisions and to appeal them. However, systematically discrediting judges when their rulings affect the presidential circle, and sending messages to the jury in advance, is incompatible with an institutional conception of power.