The Government “does not agree” with the sentence against the Attorney General, but for the moment it has decided to officially respond in a bland way, underlining that it respects the sentence and that it will appoint another Attorney General in the next few days to replace Álvaro García, who this sentence forces to leave. “While waiting to hear the full sentence, the Government respects the sentence, but does not agree with it”, underline in an initial limited reaction official sources from the Executive.
“In the next few days, the process for the appointment of a new State Attorney General will be launched, who will be a person of the highest professional prestige in the field of law. The Government wishes to recognize the work of Álvaro García Ortiz in defense of the law and truth during his period at the head of the State Attorney General”, say the same sources.
On the official side, for the moment, efforts are being made to maintain institutionality in the face of a situation of maximum political gravity. But in private the messages are very different. In the Executive, according to several ministers consulted, there was strong indignation at the conviction of the Attorney General, which some members of the Executive, especially jurists, considered completely impossible due to lack of evidence.
Moncloa still awaits more detailed instructions from Pedro Sánchez, returning from Ceuta, but the atmosphere in the offices of power suggests that in the coming days there will be stronger reactions to what the Executive unanimously considers a grave injustice and an attack against an attorney general whose innocence the president himself has defended. Óscar López himself, a person of total trust for Sánchez, said that he had to “bite his tongue” so as not to answer what he thought.
In a recent interview with EL PAÍS, Sánchez stated that what he saw at the trial further strengthened his idea of Álvaro García’s innocence, so this sentence represents a real disaster between the Supreme Court and the Government. The fact that the sentence was announced on 20 N, when the government had prepared several pro-democracy events and videos, 50 years after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, sparked even more outrage in the government.
