Afilonius Rex, Washington DC 21st January 2025.

Like many places in Europe, Spain is a fascinating mix of modernity, liberty, equality, rights and obligations. Unfortunately, and as elsewhere, it also comes with a massive dose of rightwing revisionism. There is nostalgia for a bloody and long dictatorship. A degree of xenophobia and racism is present, defying the facts on the ground. As is usually the case.

It has been cintinually brought to my attention that many feel that the justice system and some of the judges use their powers and liberty of movement to persecute politicians, political parties and pressure groups. Which, from where I see things, is a massive problem for Spain’s civiil society.

This is obviously not an exhaustive and lengthy expose or analysis, but I will take a look at three cases that should give a flavour of what is going on.

First, first we have the lawfare persecution of the partner of the President of the Spanish Government. The extreme rightwing party Vox filed a legal complaint related to Begoña Gómez’s university chair, but this was rejected due to lack of criminal evidence    However the extreme rightwing pressure group Hazte Oír managed to avoid the initial hurdles, even  though their “evidence” only consisted of selected articles taking from media outlets, which subjetivelt is not sufficient reason to open a legal case in the courts. In spite of lack of any coherent and cohesive indications of wrong doing, the Judge has chosen to take the route of speculative investigation, which has more than just a whiff of the workings of a dictatorship. However, in this case the Judge has chosen to ignore good sense and sound judgement and has apparently preferred to put politics before justice. However this is not the first case of what can probably only be described as a vulgar abuse of the Spanish justice system.

In second place is the long, aggressive, relentless and palpable judicial persecution of the leftwing political party Podemos. In May 2016, the police leaked to the media outlet Ok Diario a payment order for 272,325 dollars (229,000 euros) from the Venezuelan government in favor of Pablo Iglesias (leader of Podemos) at a branch of the Euro Pacific Bank in the Grenadines. The document turned out to be fake, according to the Euro Pacific Bank. The entire operation was planned in the Ministry of the Interior, as revealed by the WhatsApp messages exchanged between the Secretary of State for the Interior and a commisioner of the police. It’s worth noting that out of all of the accusations made against Podemos made in the courts, and there have been quite a few, not one has resulted in any kind of guilty verdict, quite the opposite.

Thirdly, in 2022 the right the far right began to corner, bully and harass the then vice president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Mónica Oltra, for a case involving her ex. The complaint of a minor under guardianship, who had allegedly suffered sexual abuse by Oltra’s ex-partner, was used as artillery in a dirty-battle against Oltra. First in media close to extreme-right Vox and the far-right elements of the PP.  The political and judicial persecution of Oltra continues to his day.

These are just the tips of some of the icebergs, and there are far more cases and examples of the poitical use and partisan abuse of the justice system. The fact that the two rightwing parties together with extreme rigtwing pressure groups can manipulate the judiciary to such a degree, and without a visible hint of pushback from judges, is a damning indictment of the precariousness of parts of the justice system in Spain, and by affinity, with the justice systems of the EU.

Watch this space.