Who will try the Duke?

Would you be willing to take a pay cut of 300 euros a month, dump a prestigious position, and request a transfer to a lower rather than a higher-ranking post? Even in boom times most people would say no to such a proposition, but in these days of lean kine, the very mention of it seems scary.

In a short period of time, however, two prestigious judges in the Balearic Islands region, Juan Catany and Margarita Beltrán, both with years of experience as presiding judges in the Palma High Court, have requested and obtained transfers to a court of first instance and a criminal court, respectively. Their professional standing ensured that they easily secured these positions of lower pay and prestige.

Another Balearic judge recently left a prominent High Court post for an obscure job in a gender-violence court, while judges in Ibiza have privately remarked that "not even as a joke" would they apply for a High Court post in Palma, even though they were due such a position given their seniority.

In case you are missing the point of all this, Margarita Beltrán was the presiding judge in the first trial of the powerful Balearic politician Jaume Matas - in which he was sentenced to six years in prison - but she will no longer be handling any of the 21 still-pending indictments in the Palma Arena corruption case (named after the Palma Arena sports complex, whose construction costs unaccountably soared from 44 to 100 million euros). The king's son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin, who became the Duke of Palma when he married, is implicated in one such case.

Beltrán, who has been on the High Court for 20 years and tried the most important cases in the region, also wrote the ruling - 120 pages of dense legal prose, which will probably set the precedent for the remaining cases against Matas - and is reputed for her meticulousness and professional dedication. Changing jobs will cost her money, as she will be taking home 3,600 euros a month instead of 3,880.

Judge Beltrán, who is far from feeble-minded, loses a little money,  but wins a fortune in terms of her quality of life

So what's the catch? Well, for some time now the two criminal sections of the High Court in Palma have been carrying a heavy workload, which calls for exceptional effort and dedication on the part of the judges.

In a lower criminal court, a judge is looking at a workload dealing with traffic offenses, robberies and drug dealing, and is spared the complications of the 21 separate indictments of the Palma Arena case, with the new trials against Matas and the one against Urdangarin included. So that Judge Beltrán, who is far from feeble-minded, loses a little money with the move, but wins a fortune in terms of her quality of life.

Meanwhile, other judges in the High Court in Palma are waiting for posts to fall vacant around the islands, or on the Spanish mainland. Sources in the court say that the situation would improve if a third criminal section were created; but with cutbacks on the horizon, it seems unlikely there will be a budget for it.

In view of the fact that the most experienced and knowledgeable judges are leaving, one may well ask: who will try Urdangarin?

Well, since the Justice Ministry appears to have no plans to reinforce the Court, it may be that the remaining political corruption cases will come before courts presided by temporary, substitute judges, most of them non-tenured university teachers, designated by the official pool for substitutions. Yes - real garden variety.

And then there are those with nasty minds, who will say that this is just the way to constitute a court suited to the needs of the situation.

"An optimist," said the late Jaume Perich, cartoonist and ironist, "thinks everything has a solution. A pessimist thinks so too, but knows that nobody is going to go out of his way to find it." Good old Perich - he's not dead.