The things for which no one resigned in Spain: were they less serious than a kiss?

@ElentirENG ES 8·25·2023 · 11:19 0

In recent days we have witnessed an embarrassing spectacle about the celebration of Spain's victory in the women's soccer world cup.

The cynicism of favoring a thousand rapists and then making a scandal over a kiss
The new campaign of socialist manipulation to launder the privileges for their allies

As I explained on Tuesday, an inappropriate kiss to a player by the president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, has become a great scandal for a left that is he has swallowed much more serious things without blinking, as if they did not matter. Some media have announced that Rubiales will resign today, after Pedro Sánchez said that "his apologies are not enough", when the acting president of the government has not resigned or apologized for matters that in any other country would have already led to his resignation and even imprisonment.

+ UPDATED 12:41h: Rubiales now says that he will not resign. In addition, announces legal action against the ministers Yolanda Díaz, Irene Montero and Ione Belarra and against the former deputy of Podemos Pablo Echenique for his accusations against him.

Since it seems that some people have the memory of a fish, let's remember some examples of scandals for which no one resigned:

2018. The plagiarized thesis of Pedro Sánchez

In September 2018, when he had been in office for two months and after that scandal broke out, vetoed a law that would have forced him to publish that thesis and he lied in parliament when affirming that the thesis was already published. Sánchez himself had defended the resignation of German ministers for plagiarizing his theses, but when it was his turn, he refused.

2020. The Delcy Rodríguez scandal

In January 2020, the Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, he arrived in Madrid by plane and the government allowed him to unload 40 suitcases without going through any security control, having a meeting with the Minister of Transport, José Luis Ábalos, in the airport terminal. With this case, the government violated the European Union sanctions against Delcy Rodríguez for being part of the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro and being an accomplice in his human rights violations. The government denied up to five times that Rodríguez had set foot on Spanish territory: a few months later, the Supreme Court confirmed that it did step on it and that European sanctions were violated, so the government lied. As in other cases, no member of the government resigned or was dismissed for it, nor did they even apologize.

2020. The illegal dismissal of Colonel Diego Pérez de los Cobos

In May 2020, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, dismisses Colonel Diego Pérez de los Cobos, head of the Madrid Civil Guard command, alleging "loss of trust". The Civil Guard related that decision to the colonel's refusal to facilitate the government a report requested by a judge on a case that harmed a member of the PSOE, despite the fact that the magistrate that handled that case had warned that the dissemination of the report could give rise to responsibility, in his case, even criminal. After the dismissal of the colonel, the government illegally leaked the report to a related media outlet. Finally, an internal order from the Civil Guard showed that Marlaska lied in parliament about the dismissal of the colonel, denying that he was related to that judicial case. The colonel took his case to the Supreme Court and the latter forced Marlaska to reinstate him in his position in July 2023. As of today, the Minister of the Interior has not yet resigned for this reason nor has he been dismissed by Sánchez.

2021. Pardons for some criminals to support the government

In June 2021, the government of Pedro Sánchez approved pardons for those convicted of various crimes related to the 2017 separatist coup in Catalonia, in order to obtain the support of ERC separatists (a party whose president was among those convicted) to the Sánchez government. This is the first time that a Spanish government pardoned criminals to obtain their political support. It also so happens that the coup leaders announced that they would do it again, referring to the crimes pardoned, so those pardons violated the law. Nobody resigned because of it.

2021. The TC confirms that Sánchez violated fundamental rights

In July 2021, the Constitutional Court (TC) confirmed that the government of Pedro Sánchez violated fundamental rights. This confirmation came with a ruling that responded to Vox's appeal against the first state of alarm decreed by the government against the pandemic in March 2020. The rights violated were the right of movement and the right of assembly , through an illegal order to confine all Spaniards to their homes, resorting to a constitutional mechanism, the state of alarm, which did not allow him to do that. Sánchez did not resign, he did not apologize and also said that "I would do it again" .

2021. The TC confirms that the PSOE and Podemos illegally closed Congress

In October 2021, the Constitutional Court handed down a new ruling responding to another Vox appeal against the measures taken by the government against the pandemic, specifically due to the decision of the PSOE and Podemos to suspend activity in the Cortes, a decision that was illegal, according to the Constitutional Court, noting that both in a state of alarm and in a state of exception or in a state of siege, "cannot under any circumstances interrupt the operation of any of the constitutional powers of the State and, in particular, the Congress of Deputies." As was the case with the previous ruling of the TC, in the PSOE and in Podemos, the partner parties of the government, there was not a single resignation for this reason, and they did not even ask for forgiveness.

2022. ERE case, a colossal corruption scandal of the PSOE

In July 2022, the ruling of the Supreme Court on the ERE Case, one of the largest corruption cases in the history of Spain, with n amount of 855 million euros defrauded. Among those convicted were two former national presidents of the PSOE and a former PSOE minister, and the case uncovered a huge network of patronage that benefited companies and individuals linked to that party. No PSOE leader resigned for this reason and the media related to that party made an effort to hide the PSOE's links with the case.

2022. The criminal reduction to more than 1,000 rapists and pedophiles

In 2022, at the initiative of the government, a law is approved that reduces the sentences for sexual offenders. In a display of cynicism, the government blamed the judges for this criminal reduction, accusing them of "machismo", promoted by the government and supported in the courts by the PSOE and We can, the government partner parties. Podemos, the party that led the initiative for that law, launched a campaign of attacks on judges to blame them for the effects of that law. As a consequence of this law, the sentences of more than 1,000 rapists ended up being reduced and more than 100 were released, causing a great political and social scandal. Finally, the government rectified the law, when it was too late to avoid criminal reductions and release of rapists. No one resigned and no one was fired for it.

2022. Sánchez lowers penalties for crimes to leave his allies unpunished

After the pardons granted to the coup leaders in 2021, in November 2022, Sánchez urgently eliminated the crime of sedition and reduced the crime of embezzlement to maintain support of their separatist allies in Congress. It was the first time that a Spanish government lowered the Penal Code to obtain the support of criminals, a new scandal that made it clear that for Sánchez his will and his personal interest are above the State of Right. Nobody resigned because of it.

2022. Sánchez's coup to judicial independence

In December 2022, Pedro Sánchez modified two organic laws by way of urgency to assault the Judiciary and the Constitutional Court. This openly anti-democratic maneuver was also carried out using the same method as Hugo Chávez's assault on judicial independence in Venezuela in 2004. Following the very precautionary measures requested by the Popular Party, the Constitutional Court stopped Sánchez's blow to judicial independence, being the first time in 40 years that the TC was forced to stop a parliamentary vote for incurring an open purpose unconstitutional. No member of the government resigned or apologized for it.

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From this list I have omitted the numerous lies of Pedro Sánchez, lies that he has justified as "changes of opinion", and that would give material for a much longer entry than this one. In any other country, for a president of the government to lie is something very serious and that entails resignation. However, in Spain Sánchez has turned his lies into something daily, a tool he uses incessantly to deceive the Spanish and deny the effects of the bad management of his government. And that same liar is the one who now says that Rubiales' apologies are insufficient.

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Photo: Europa Press.