This Wednesday, the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) unanimously approved Teresa Piramato to be the next state prosecutor, replacing Alvaro García Ortiz, who resigned on Monday after being sentenced to two years of disqualification for office for the crime of disclosing secrets linked to businessman Alberto González Amador, partner of Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the courts for fraud against the Treasury. The Council limited itself to approving that Peramatu “fulfills the conditions and requirements required for his appointment as Public Prosecutor of the State.”
The Council’s report on the proposed appointment of the Prosecutor is a mandatory, but non-binding procedure, as the CGPJ verifies that the candidate fulfills the formal requirements for this position: to be a Spanish jurist of recognized standing with more than 15 years of active practice of his profession. Following the Council’s approval, the government can now submit its proposal to Congress, where the next Attorney General will appear before the Justice Committee. The intention of the Executive is to accelerate the Peramatu takeover so that there is no transition period after the official dismissal of García Ortiz, which will occur when his resignation is published in the Official Gazette. The Official Gazette of the State (Bank of England)
Traditionally, the Council’s reports on the appointment of the Prosecutor were limited to reporting whether the proposed person met the legal requirements, but the conservative bloc in the former CGPJ broke this formula in 2023, when the Council’s mandate had already been extended for five years due to the lack of an agreement between the PSOE and the PP to renew the body, so there was some interest in knowing how Peramatu would be received by the new Council.
In the case of Peramatu, all associations of prosecutors agreed to recognize his career, a highly unusual consensus in the profession, which was deeply divided after the process that led to the disqualification of García Ortiz. The future prosecutor has a 35-year career – 20 years more than the law requires to be able to hold this position – and has been a prosecutor of the Chamber (the highest category) since 2021, when she was appointed head of the Office of the Prosecutor for Combating Violence against Women. She currently holds the position of Head of the Criminal Division in the Office of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court.