The adjustment of accounts that the former government president and founder of Podemos Pablo Iglesias Make in your book Intimate enemies (Navona), which has just been published, consists of an entire chapter-the third one nothing less-dedicated to the one who was a judge of the National Court Manuel García Castellón. He touches him as “corrupt judge”, but he also defends that, in general, the judges “operate in favor of the right of Spain.”
Actually, García Castellón’s chapter-“Puñales y Puñetas. García-Castellón and other Judges of the Mug”-has perlitas for other togos such as the current magistrates of the Appeals Chamber of the National Court Eloy Velasco y Enrique López; The Supreme Court’s Sala prosecutor Javier Zaragoza; The member of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) José Carlos Orga; The judge Adolfo Carreterowhich takes the complaint for sexual assault of Elisa Mouliaá to Íñigo Errejón; The judge Joaquín Aguirre who led in Barcelona one of the investigations against independence; or the judge Juan José Escalonillawhich opened up to ten ramifications in the ‘neuron case’ to investigate the financing of Podemos that ended up in archiving.
The thesis of the former government president is for the judges to protect each other and therefore, even if they do their job badly, none ends up prosecuted or convicted. Why the former condemnation of the exjuez Baltasar Garzónto whom the Supreme Court disabled for 11 years for ordering illegal listening in jail, Iglesias gives a simple solution: “He ran out of judicial family.”
“Why will almost never happen to the judges to eventually prevail in a conservative direction? Because they have a lot of power, because the judicial elites are mostly right -wing and because the judges, in general, protect each other,” he defends. He even adds that in the case of the magistrates considered more progressive, the same logic operates in which the corporatism matters more than any other “consideration.”
The former president in the coalition government of Pedro Sánchez does not commune with which the reason why more left -wing people do not study these oppositions is monetary. This January, precisely, the Executive presented a draft law that contemplated more scholarships for opponents, a change in the rules of access to the judicial and fiscal career or add dozens of substitute judges in the ranks. This reform of the Organic Law of the Judiciary (LOPJ) was defended from the Ministry of Presidency, Justice and relationship with the Courts as an opportunity to “democratize” the entrance to La Carera.
Iglesias disagree with this idea and believes that unions or left groups could promote more studies in this branch, but that, however, the right monopolizes the strategic positions of the State and Cup most prosecutors, judges, technicians of the central administration, police, military … “One can be a minister for a while, but the judicial career is for a lifetime,” he says.
His crusade against García Castellón
The one who was a magistrate, now retired, of the National Court requested the imputation of Iglesias in October 2020 when he occupied a seat in the Council of Ministers. It was an unexpected flying of the ‘Dina Case’ in which García Castellón understood that there was a crime of discovery and revelation of secrets due to the fact that he had stayed for a while with a card that was stolen from the mobile of what was his advisor.
The matter ended in archives, but the judge came to ask the CGPJ for the threats that were produced against him from the circles of Podemos. The former leader of the Purple Party also shaves him that the magistrate filed the imputation of the former secretary general of the PP María Dolores de Cospedal in the ‘Kitchen Operation’. The truth is that this file was ratified by three magistrates of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court.
“García Castellón It represents that magistracy that operates not only for saving the skin to the Popula PartyR In all its corruption cases, but also for a deeper ideological commitment, a militant political commitment if you want, the safeguarding of its own idea of the unity of Spain, “Churches dispatch in his book.
He says that although there is no conviction against the judge, there is no administrative reproach against him, it can be affirmed that he distorts the right to extend investigations irregularly or by investigating a political leader “without evidence” and this, therefore, makes him a “corrupt” judge.
Iglesias risks that the togado acts against him as he did with the current general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, whom he filed a lawsuit claiming 240,000 euros in networks for calling him through his social networks “prevaricator”. “Today the BOE publishes the forced retirement of Judge García-Castellón. We said it months ago and now it is confirmed, this and other corrupt judges, who have prevailed (sic) against those who defend another idea of Spain, they will go from Rositas without any penalty thanks to the PSOE. Shame,” Belarra wrote in the late 2024.
The Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court has admitted the claim for the right to the honor of the retired magistrate against the spokeswoman for the purple and the Prosecutor’s Office this month of March has supported the admission saying that the qualifiers against him are “clearly offensive and unnecessary.” The Public Ministry, yes, recommends lowering compensation to 20,000 euros. Sources close to the togado explain that before taking a step against Iglesias after the publication of This book will wait to see how the high court is pronounced on the matter of Belarra.
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