The CGPJ concludes that the magistrate who compared the PCE with the Nazis did not commit "thoughtlessness"

The Promoter of Disciplinary Action of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) rejects that the president of the Court of Justice of Castilla y León, José Luis Concepción, incurred in any infraction included in the LAW when in an interview to Diario de Burgos compared the PCE with the Nazis, alluding to the participation of United We Can in the Government of the nation.

This figure from the CGPJ, a kind of prosecutor for the disciplinary infractions of the judges, analyzes the complaints of the progressive member Concepción Sáez and the Association of Lawyers and Lawyers of the Left and concludes the magistrate is protected by freedom of expression and that he did not use his position to incur in “serious and objective disregard for citizens” when he referred to the Communist Party of Spain, an organization that has had and maintains thousands of members in a democracy.

According to the Promoter of the Disciplinary Action, Concepción did not commit “an excess within the powers that his condition of authority grants him”, neither in the jurisdictional nor in the governmental sphere, nor did he do so “externalizing the condition of authority”, despite be interviewed because of his position as president of the TSJ of Castilla y León.

“The prosecuted conduct does not find a typical fit in this disciplinary offense either. [artículo 418.5 de la Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial]since the opinions expressed in the interview are not limited to a personal and direct relationship with the citizens, nor can it be presumed from a disciplinary point of view that this generic opinion about a political party constitutes a serious and objective disregard for the citizens in the terms required by the disciplinary type announced”, concludes Santiago Senent Martínez, promoter of the Disciplinary Action.

The filing proposal now has to go through the CGPJ Disciplinary Commission, which has already refused to file another complaint against Concepción for similar statements. In fact, Diario de Burgos asked Concepción about some previous statements, the reason for the first disciplinary investigation. On a local television she had assured that the presence of Podemos in the Government put “democracy in solfa”.

When the newspaper asked him if he was still thinking about it, the president of the TSJ of Castilla y León stated: “I don’t say it, history says it. Communism has generated more than 110 million deaths in the countries in which it has had some kind of influence since the Soviet revolution of 1917; and the rights and freedoms of the people have been significantly undermined wherever he has governed (…)”. When the interviewer commented that Podemos is legal and normally attends the elections, the judge replied: “The National Socialist Party also came to power through the ballot box in Germany in 1933, and we must not remember the consequences that its victory brought.”

Senent explains that repeated behavior cannot be applied to Concepción either because the first complaint for the statements on local television was filed, so the judge cannot be considered a repeat offender. “It turns out that the demonstrations do not contain the elements of article 418.3 of the LOPJ, since it does not express censorship or congratulations to any specific authority or official; it does not materialize in any act, but is limited to expressing an opinion of a personal nature; and despite his condition as a magistrate being known, there is no record of the invocation of said condition in the sense of using it, as required by the type”, adds the resolution, to which elDiario.es has had access.