The former president of the Government and historic leader of the PSOE, Felipe González, spoke this Tuesday about the investigation of the Begoña Gómez case, the wife of the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the criticism that the judge in charge of the investigation, Juan Carlos Peinado. “We have been making a dramatic mistake for a long time, which is to judicialize politics and This has a drift that can be delicatewhich is to end up politicizing justice. If the judges make mistakes there are remedies, but “One cannot interfere in the function of the judiciary.”González said in an interview on TVE’s La Noche en 24 Horas.
Since the opening of the investigation against Pedro Sánchez’s wife became known, the President of the Government himself and his colleagues in the Executive have repeatedly regretted and criticized Peinado’s work at the head of the investigation. In fact, in the month of July, Sánchez did not hesitate to describe as a “montage” the judicial “non-case” opened by Peinado against his wife, where she is being investigated for alleged influence peddling and corruption in business. This same Tuesday, the Government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, has also spoken along the same lines and has assured that “the no cause is approaching its file” after being questioned about the limitation of the case by the Madrid Court.
Asked about the issue, the former president González, very critical of Sánchez’s work for years At the head of the Government, he has been blunt. “It worries me and it is absurd to enter into that dynamic which is leading us to an induced polarization from top to bottom. Society does not have the degree of tension that is reflected above. Do we want society to be organized from above? Yes, and that breaks fundamental elements, one of them coexistence with the powers of the State,” the Andalusian stated without hesitation, who has asked to respect the work of the judges, “even if you don’t like what they do in one case or another.”
“Most progressive government in history? It is an offense to reason”
In addition, the former socialist president has also been asked about his non-invitation to the Federal Congress of the Socialist Party in Seville next November and if he considers that the primary system works, just in a week in which there has been internal criticism within the PSOE and complaints of boycott from the Castilian-Leonese federation to put a supporter of Sánchez in that community. “They say it is the party of militants, I do not identify it“, said González, who has assured that the primary system does not work. “Now we are going to change the regional financing system and there will be a Catalan quota. The financing system is something structural, much more serious than seven votes to govern,” he criticized.
For years, González has been questioned both within the party and outside for his positions contrary to the current socialist leadership. In the last electoral campaign in July 2023, he did not even participate in it to request a vote for Sánchez. “Some say that I work for the PP, if that were the case, I would have already won,” he joked about this before pointing out that “the Government is not representing me with these pacts with ERC.” In González’s opinion, proclaiming itself from the Executive as “the most progressive government in history is an offense to reason.” “It is the most unequal government in the distribution of economic income in history”he stated on the TVE set, where he also assured that from the second or third year of Government “one is his own heir and the fault cannot lie with the previous one.” Pedro Sánchez has been governing since 2018 and since 2020 in coalition, first with Podemos and now with Sumar.
Despite this, González wanted to be clear and state his position on the matter. “There is a lot of confusion, I I am in favor of decentralization, but radically against centrifugation of power”, he assured, when asked about the Catalan quota agreed between the PSOE and ERC in exchange for the investiture of Salvador Illa in the Generalitat of Catalonia.
Finally, when questioned about the recent law that the Government is promoting on criminal records that will benefit ETA prisoners to reduce their sentences, González assured that it comes from a “European directive that was already in the Rajoy Government in 2011 “. “He challenged that directive saying that cases of terrorism should be excluded and the CJEU agreed with him, but then terrorism was more alive,” he said. “Can there be another interpretation? Maybe. Now ETA’s terrorism has disappeared, but have terrorist crimes really disappeared? That raises a reasonable doubt,” the Andalusian reflected before throwing another question into the air to finish. “The debate is interpretable, but (politicians) must have other, much more important issues to deal with, because no one has realized this,” he added.
