Confused judicial procedure

After three years of judicial proceedings concerning the fraudulent ERE subsidies (public subsidies provided to companies for mass layoffs) in Andalusia, on Tuesday Judge Mercedes Alaya issued a writ calling for six political figures, who have repeatedly been mentioned in the news media as being implicated in the case, to “appear in the proceedings.”

The examining judge accordingly informs them of their condition as suspects under the terms of Article 118.2 of the Criminal Indictment Law, which she herself describes as “confused,” instead of following the path marked by the Constitution and by general jurisprudence, which is that of remitting the case to the appropriate higher court in function of the parliamentary immunity they possess. This is the Supreme Court in two cases, those of Manuel Chaves (a former Andalusian premier) and José Antonio Viera (former regional labor commissioner), given that they are already members of Congress, while José Antonio Griñán will possess the same condition as soon as the Andalusian regional parliament elects him a national senator in the wake of his recent resignation from the post of regional premier.

In the recent past the Socialist (PSOE) member of Congress José Blanco and the Popular Party (PP) senator Luis Bárcenas voluntarily agreed to make their statements in a hearing before the Supreme Court, once this court had accepted its competence in the proceedings opened against them by other judges.

What is unusual in this case is the judge’s apparent desire that the parliamentarians should appear in her court in a case which she retains in her hands, but in which she cannot formally name them as being suspected of anything. It is hard to understand what need there is of resorting to a “confused” procedure, when a more clearly defined one exists. It is easy to understand the doubts felt by the Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office as to whether Tuesday’s writ is in accordance with the terms of the law.

 The juridical effects of the decision are thus practically nil. However, its political and media effects are obvious enough.

The rapidity with which the Andalusian PSOE has withdrawn from the regional government every person who has any potential for implication in the fraudulent ERE scandal is aimed at ensuring that the new governing team of Susana Díaz can start up in a climate free of suspicion. Not because its members include any implicated persons, but due to the difficulty of separating its image from that of a party whose previous leaders have been formally named as being implicated, though only in terms as nebulous as the appearance of a “certain onus of incrimination” — Alaya’s words — concerning the possibility of misuse of office and misappropriation of funds.

What we need is light, not deeper shadows. Judge Alaya’s proceedings only prolong the progress of the investigation, and postpone the steps necessary to determine who, exactly, are the individuals responsible for the irregularities that were committed. It does not make sense for the ERE case to be turned into the “Alaya case.”