he Council of Europe Raise your voice against the deterioration of the rule of law taking place in Spain. The two speakers assessing the health of Spain’s democracy issued a statement on Friday warning that “respect… … Judicial rulings are a fundamental principle of the rule of law, after a number of members of the government and its parliamentary allies accused the Supreme Court of convicting the State Prosecutor, Álvaro García Ortiz, for political reasons despite his innocence.
“No democracy can allow public debate to be hijacked by rhetoric that undermines confidence in the Supreme Court or the General Council of the Judiciary,” they warn. Valentina Grippo and Elvira Kovacs. They added that “political polarization should not impede respect for the rule of law” and cannot serve as an excuse to undermine confidence in democratic institutions.
Their statement is a summary of the trip they took this month to Madrid and Barcelona to meet with the President of the Constitutional Court, Candido Conde Pompidou; The President of the Supreme Court and the General Council of the Judiciary, Isabel Perillo, or the leader of the People’s Party, Alberto Nuñez Viejo, among other institutional and personal representatives, with ABC advancing. The speakers had requested a meeting with two government ministers, Felix Bolaños and Fernando Grande-Marlaska, but neither of them attended, citing reasons related to the agenda. On the part of the executive branch, European parliamentarians They had to content themselves with meeting with the technical levels Ministries of the Presidency, Justice, Relations with Courts, and Interior. Perhaps this is the reason why the memorandum published yesterday announced that there would be a second trip to our country before concluding its report.
The document will be presented in the first half of 2026 and what was conveyed on Friday does not predict good news for the government of Pedro Sánchez. In their statement, the speakers also condemn the deterioration of the institutional climate in Spain, and urge to ensure the independence of the judiciary, strengthen the General Council of the Judiciary, and implement recommendations to prevent corruption in the government that were implementing Group of States Against Corruption (Greece) To Spain since 2019.
There are 19 of these recommendations, and the latest assessment published in August found that our country is not yet fully compliant with any of them.