I suspect that High Court Judge Baltasar Garzon’s “brilliant career” is finally grinding to a halt. He’s currently in the dock for the third time...
...facing charges of bribery for allegedly accepting money from the Banco Santander to organise some lectures in the US while he was on a sabbatical year at New York University. Allegedly he shelved a tax fraud case against Santander CEO Emilio Botín in return. If his accusers make this one stick, he faces a jail term. In the first case, he admitted having ordered the tapping of telephone conversations of suspects jailed for their part in the so-called Gürtel corruption case to prevent them from salting away their loot abroad. In the second case he is accused of flouting the 1977 Amnesty Law by ordering an investigation into crimes committed during the Franco dictatorship. Although there were rumours that this case could be dropped because, as things stand, it doesn’t stand a snow flake’s chance in hell of proceeding, the High Court has just ruled that it can go ahead. Whatever verdicts are eventually passed down, it looks as if he’ll never practise law in Spain again. However, I’m sure they’ll welcome him in Argentina... where the descendants of Republicans who found refuge there after the Civil War have asked him to take up their case against the Franco regime. No doubt he’ll be given Argentinian nationality in record time so that he can get on with trying Franco “in absentia”.
Those who love Garzon see him as a brilliant crusading lawyer, an adjective that was stuck on him when he tried to have former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet extradited from the UK to face genocide charges in Spain. A lot of people applauded his bold stand, including myself. But his detractors say that the headlines he earned worldwide gave him a taste for “spectacular” cases and unfortunately he set a trend for a small clique of Spanish judges. They were reined in by the High Court a couple of years back after they tried to open cases against top US military men and a couple of politicians for their role in setting up the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and to bring genocide charges against a couple of Israeli generals for attacks on the Palestinians.
What many people forget is Garzon’s close association with the Socialist Party. He was actually elected to Parliament on the Socialist ticket in 1993 but resigned, he says, because he felt Felip Gonzalez's government was not taking corruption seriously enough. His detractors say he fell out with Gonzalez because he wasn't given the Justice ministry. So far all of his targets – apart from Franco – have been members of the Partido Popular and political observers have long wondered if Garzon would pursue a corruption case involving Socialists – and there are plenty of them out there – with the same zeal he showed in the Gürtel case.
A lowering of tone
I’m not referring to tone as in “class” but as in decibels. I couldn’t help but notice the difference between the Socialists and the PP on Sunday, when Socialist Party leader hopeful Carme Chacon hectored a rally of her supporters, literally shouting that Rajoy should be here at home, solving the country’s problems instead of in Germany licking Merkel’s feet or kowtowing to the EU in Brussels. Actually, Carme, he was there trying to restore the faith in Spain that your beloved ex-leader lost.
Meanwhile the PP’s secretary general, Maria Dolores de Cospedal was telling another meeting that the government’s economic measures were being well-received abroad, especially in France and Germany and by the European Commission. She said it was obvious that Spain now has a “serious government and a serious way of doing things”. She also said: “It’s absolutely incredible that the Socialists dare give us lessons, criticising the government when they are responsible for the situation the country is now in.” Without raising her voice above a normal speaking tone, she added that both aspiring Socialist contenders – Rubalcaba and Chacon – are seeking success by “criticising the PP government, boycotting the government of Spain and not offering any alternative to help solve the disaster they left behind”.
Written by Muriel Pilkington, The local voice
- Virtual Newspaper
- Weather Forecast