The previous spokesperson for the Government, Isabel Rodriguezbreached the duty of neutrality when, in the middle of the electoral period, he took advantage of the Council of Ministers’ press conferences to praise Sánchez and criticize the opposition. This is what the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court (TS) considers, which has rejected the appeal filed by the now head of Housing against several agreements of the Central Electoral Board (JEC) that They fined him a total of 4,700 euros. Rodríguez’s statements that led to the sanctions occurred in April and May 2023, from the Moncloa lectern and in response to questions from journalists. On those dates, local and regional elections were called.
For the magistrates, the JEC acted in accordance with the law by imposing sanctions of 2,500 and 2,200 euros on the minister, after warning her on several occasions that she must maintain the principle of neutrality during the election period. In its sanctioning resolutions, the Board applied article 50.2 of the Electoral Law, which states that “from the call of the elections until their celebration, any act organized or financed, directly or indirectly, by the public powers that contains allusions to the achievements or achievements obtained, or that uses images or expressions that coincide or are similar to those used in their own campaigns by any of the political entities participating in the elections.
The Supreme Court points out that “the reason for the warnings first and the sanctions later has no relation to the information about what decided in the Councils of Ministersbut with the government’s actions and with the criticism of the opposition that are clearly seen in the different responses” that the socialist Isabel Rodríguez gave to the journalists in Moncloa.
As an example, in one of her interventions the current Minister of Housing took the opportunity to sneak in the employment data: “These magnificent data are historical data on employment in our country, historical because never before has employment grown so much in a month of March and, therefore, today is a day, if I may, in the field of emotions and sensations, a day of celebration for these magnificent data. And continued attacking the opposition leader. «That is why I do not understand, and I answer your second question, what is happening to Núñez Feijóo with the unemployment data (…) I do not understand that, on a day like today, where the majority of us are happy, happy, celebrating for “These data (…) find in this an occasion to be angry, to argue with the Government.”
The TS exonerates the journalistson whom Rodríguez relied to justify his answers. “It is natural that they ask about current issues, but it is the obligation of those who have the public responsibility of the minister spokesperson for the Government to distinguish what they should say and what they should not say because the law prevents them from doing so.”
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