Whether they were willingly given, I don't know. But they are extraordinarily important, valuable and explanatory statements, made by the second-ranked prosecutor in Spain's Supreme Court, Luis Navajas Ramos, denouncing pressure applied by his colleagues, and accusing them of being ideologically tainted. It is true that, directly, he is talking about the pressure that was put on him by other prosecutors so that he would not reject the 21 complaints registered against the Spanish government for its management of the coronavirus health crisis. But, in the end, the precise issue is almost anecdotal, and much less important than the confirmation that this provides from within the state attorney profession of the ideological contamination of the prosecutors mentioned. And also that the person who has spoken up about this serious matter now has been number two in the Supreme Court prosecutors' office for six years and feels freer to give his opinion as he is about to retire: he only has 81 more days until that moment.
The two prosecutors to whom Navajas has alluded are old acquaintances of the Catalan independence movement, with both playing an active role in the pro-independence leaders' trial: Consuelo Madrigal, former attorney general of the state under Mariano Rajoy's government and explicitly cited by Navajas; and secondly, Fidel Cadena, whom he did not name, but gave enough clues so that everyone concerned agrees that he was the one referred to. For one reason or another, however, we will gradually find out much more about this as time goes on, especially as different levels of the judicial profession face each other. The matter will have no consequences on the ruling handed down by the chamber presided over by judge Manuel Marchena against the pro-independence leaders, in what has been considered the most important trial in recent decades. But now we know from within that the Madrigal-Cadena tandem was ideologically tainted. We were able to see it for weeks and can scarcely be surprised by what Navajas has said: the trial of the independence referendum was, as a whole, a disgraceful performance intended to convict the members of the Catalan government, the speaker of Parliament and the leaders of the pro-independence civil organizations to prison sentences which are only comprehensible in the context of the general case being conducted against the Catalan independence movement.
Europe will give its verdict on this in a few years, although none of those convicted will end up getting much benefit from that since their years in prison will have ended. This is the tragedy of the contrast between those who are calling the shots and those who are receiving them. And who, on days like this Tuesday experience situations like that of Jordi Turull, who lost his father while he was serving his sentence in Lledoners prison.
More than 24 hours have gone by since prosecutor Navajas testified without an announcement of an official investigation into the serious allegations of ideological bias in Madrigal and Cadena. I am very much afraid that everything will be covered up, which is what usually happens in Spain when you want an issue to go as unnoticed as possible. Navajas has opened a Pandora's box and no one is interested in stirring up what's inside as it would taint everybody. This is how the Popular Party (PP) has acquired all the power of the judiciary, since in the end it has been the only one with a strategy and has always gone on the attack. That’s why it has only accepted renewals of judicial bodies when it had a position of advantage and if it didn’t, it would opt for a blockage of the situation, pure and simple: either we win or nobody plays the game.