On Tuesday, the judge and some private accusers, including representatives from Vox, were able to visit and attempt to interview the President of Spain in the Official Residence, about the apparent improprieties of the President’s wife.
Pedro Sánchez stood on his legal rights to not declare to the judge.
Imagine the scene. Imagine the image. Imagine the fallout. Imagine the jubilation of the far-right at this extraordinary – and defamatory – turn of events.
The Vox lawyer present at the brief event said afterwards: "The President was both impassive and arrogant".
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| -Afterwards: Vox lawyer with senior party member- |
The Manos Limpias, usually described as an ‘ultra’ pseudo-syndicate, is the group behind the complaints against the President of Spain’s wife Begoña Gómez, for various causes of corruption as described (invented) in far-right news-sites and collected and presented by the group to an eccentric judge who has consequently spent the last few months on a fishing expedition to try and find something against his victim and – who knows – bring about the fall of the Government and the glorious revival of the conservatives (and their fascist allies).
The day after the denuncia back in April, Manos Limpias said ‘It will now be up to the judge to determine whether the news reports are true or not’.
All this, despite a 160 page study by the UCO (serious crimes unit of the Guardia Civil) showing that there was no case to answer.
The judge is Juan Carlos Peinado, described as ‘the head of the 41st court in Madrid. His daughter, Patricia Peinado, is a councillor for the PP in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid)’.
‘Is there anything normal in this witch-hunt?’ asks Ignacio Escolar in his weekly editorial.
‘No’, he answers himself.
All good fun, and sorry for my excitable tone.
Now the Clean Hands people – well, it’s just Miguel Bernad and his lawyers (…and bankers and political friends) have made another denuncia against the socialist hoards – in this case a complaint against the PSOE, ERC and Junts for using the term ‘Lawfare’ to describe political acts by the judiciary disguised as jurisprudence.
The Supreme Court says that the term, as used against several judges mentioned by name, may be considered as ‘a lack of respect’ but not as a threat. (The Supreme Court practically admitting here that ‘Lawfare’ is a thing).
Miguel, by the way, was named Knight of Honour by the Francisco Franco National Foundation for his "services in defence of the ideals of the Movement" in December 2011.
Manos Limpias was founded in 1995 and quickly began to make complaints against any left-wing agency or person until in 2006 the Supreme Court accused it of the crimes of repeated false accusations. The agency has also made complaints against same-sex marriages, the prime minister of Gibraltar, various politicians and left-wing judges.
The agency is accused of making denuncias, and then searching for a pecuniary solution – Miguel and the president of Ausbanc, Luis Pineda, narrowly avoided going to prison in 2021 for this impropriety (they were absolved in 2024 by another court).
Wiki tells us that ‘With more than 6,000 members, Manos Limpias neither presents accounts nor holds meetings as required by its statutes. The Barcelona Court maintains that "it seems that the activity of this union is none other than filing complaints".
Most of their complaints over the years were later discarded by the Supreme Court and other lower courts, including the Pablo Iglesias PISA invention in 2016, the frustrated trial against Princess Cristina in 2017 and their complaint against a satirical magazine called Mongolia for a particularly tasteless cover in January this year.
A comment describes the Manos Limpias as ‘white-collar delinquents with dirty hands’, well, maybe so, but they will continue to seek to wound Spain’s progress and international reputation for some time to come.