The Diplomat
The PSOE has appealed against the awarding of the International Medal of the Community of Madrid to the Argentinean president, Javier Milei, for allegedly committing fraud by committing “radical nullity of full right to have been dictated totally and absolutely disregarding the procedure and the legally established requirements”.
This is stated in an appeal filed with the Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM), to which Europa Press had access, against the decree 19/2024, of 20 June, of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, by which the aforementioned distinction is granted.
The secretary general of the PSOE-M, Juan Lobato, announced the appeal on 23 June during a visit to Colmenar Viejo, where he pointed out that the award was contrary to “state regulations approved by former president Mariano Rajoy, which establish that the Spanish government must direct foreign policy”.
In its argument, the PSOE argues that the grounds for the challenge are that the object of the contested act, the awarding of the medal to Milei, suffers from “specific grounds for invalidity of the procedure that gave rise to the contested Decree, and in particular of the provisions of Law 2/2024, of 22 April, which regulates the honorary distinctions Gold Medal of the Community of Madrid, Grand Cross of the Order of May 2nd and International Medal of the Community of Madrid”.
It argues that the awarding of the medal responds “solely and exclusively to the political closeness of the distinguished person to the president of the Community of Madrid and proposer of the distinction”.
“Turning a noble institutional decision to impose a medal as a gesture of courtesy and recognition of the citizens of the Community of Madrid on a foreign leader, in a partisan political propaganda action, absolutely violates the principle of neutrality and objectivity of public administrations, contained in article 103 of the Spanish Constitution,” the document states.
For this reason, the Socialists claim that they are lodging the appeal “in representation of the collective interests of the citizens of Madrid and the country as a whole, and of the values they represent to ensure the legality of the institutions and against the partisan and advantageous use of Public Institutions against constitutional values and principles”.
Likewise, they challenge the decree for their own interests as a political party and its representatives, in accordance with “the constitutional functions attributed to them as a political party by Article 6 of the Spanish Constitution, as an expression of political pluralism, which contributes to the formation and manifestation of the popular will and a fundamental instrument for the political participation of citizens”.
