The Government continues to feel the wear and tear of the “Begoña Gómez case”, whose tentacles already have a direct impact on the president, after Judge Juan Carlos Peinado decided to take her statement as a witness in the case. The Executive continues to maintain that “there is nothing”, but considerably raises the tone of criticism regarding the magistrate’s instruction. “This is not a judicial case, it is a political case,” said the government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, yesterday from the table of the Council of Ministers. In addition to the socialist sources who point to a “textbook prevarication” there are also public pronouncements at the highest level. “This matter is strictly what it seems. It is a political case. It only has one objective, which is to attack the President of the Government, his family and erode this progressive government,” insisted Alegría.
In Moncloa they do not want to anticipate judicial scenarios, they do not want to specify whether Sánchez will ask to testify in writing or if he will take advantage of the dispensation to not speak out against his wife. In any case, the Executive wants to wait for them to be notified of the summons, something that –according to government sources– has not yet happened and which is a legal imperative. The cited sources trust in the possibilities of avoiding the statement for the suspensive effects of the appeals that have been filed by the Prosecutor’s Office and the defense of Begoña Gómez. Specifically, there are two that Judge Peinado himself should resolve, with little room for success, and another two pending resolution in the Provincial Court of Madrid, which, they remember in Moncloa, “may ask for the case to be closed.” “We will see how these appeals are resolved and if they prosper,” say those close to Sánchez, with the hope that they can arrive in time, something very complicated, to be able to avoid the statement.
In Moncloa they recall that, in these appeals, “beyond alleging, they are asking Judge Peinado to respond,” so “he cannot ignore them.” They also point out that in the instruction there are “inconsistencies,” such as summoning Sánchez “as a husband” while the activity of Begoña Gómez is being investigated throughout her time as President of the Government. In this period of time they see, in turn, a clear “prospective” intention. In the Cabinet they describe as “absurd” that the summons of the head of the Executive is leaked before it is notified to Sánchez. “This demonstrates the lack of guarantees of the process,” they point out from his entourage. These sources are skeptical about the surprise factor of the summons. Although the move caused astonishment in the Government due to the “unprecedented” and “unheard of” nature of the judicial decision, in Moncloa they say that Sánchez expected the attack against him and his wife to intensify, simply because they are his wife, and that he left this in writing in the letter with which he began his five days of reflection.
The Executive does not hide the fact that this issue is causing a strain on the Government and directly accuses the opposition of trying to achieve with “dark manoeuvres” what the ballot boxes denied them a year ago. A “strategy that has been based on hatred, rage and anger that has continued over the last year,” denounced Alegría, who asked the PP to “assume responsibility for the mandate of the ballot boxes.”