The Diplomat
The Central Electoral Board (JEC, by its Spanish acronym) has opened disciplinary proceedings against the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, for breaching the principle of “institutional neutrality” during an electoral process and making “evaluative assessments with an electoral connotation” during the press conference following the last European Council held on 29 and 30 June from the offices of the Permanent Representation of Spain in Brussels.
At the press conference following the European Council, Sánchez criticised the agreements between the PP and Vox and praised his own administration.
The JEC recalls that it already sanctioned Sánchez in 2020 for the same reason, and that his statements in which he warned of the “involution” that is taking place in Spain with the PP and Vox pacts in Extremadura and Valencia “could be legitimate in the course of a campaign event or in the ordinary exercise of freedom of expression, but not in the performance of the institutional activity of a public authority”, reports Efe.
“This would be in breach of the principle of institutional neutrality” of article 103.1 of the Constitution and article 50.2 of the Electoral Law, says the JEC, which urges the president to issue the appropriate instructions so that during the remainder of the electoral period the aforementioned statements remain removed from the pages and institutional accounts that the Presidency of the Government has on the Internet and social networks.
And that “in future institutional acts, it should exercise extreme diligence to avoid violating the principle of neutrality that the public authorities are obliged to respect during the electoral process”.
The JEC, in this way, partially upholds the appeal filed by the PP, considering that Sánchez also made evaluative assessments referring to alleged achievements in economic and employment matters aimed at promoting “a favourable assessment of the Government’s management”.
“Likewise, critical assessments are made in this press conference, attributing alleged setbacks and cuts in rights to governments that arise from agreements between parties of a different political persuasion to the parties that support the national government, a government to which alleged advances are attributed”, argues the agreement of the JEC.
The letter highlights the “intrinsic transcendence” of Sánchez’s statements and their degree of projection and public repercussion when he was also about to assume the Presidency of the Council of the EU, although it recalls that it will be up to the investigator of the case to decide whether or not to finally sanction the president or whether it can be considered that his statements were made spontaneously.
“This Board has already pointed out that it must be made very clear that in Spain the senior officials of the Public Administrations are at the service of all Spaniards and that, consequently, the partisan use of the institutional resources assigned to them for the benefit of a specific political faction is absolutely forbidden”, the JEC points out.
Furthermore, it does not accept the allegations of the president’s defence that the demonstrations were essential for the safeguarding of the public interest or for the proper performance of a public service.
