The Central Electoral Board (JEC) has rejected this Thursday opening a new sanctioning procedure against Pedro Sánchez for his statements during last week's European Council. The body archives the two complaints from the PP, considering the elements insufficient to initiate such a procedure, although it reminds the president of his obligation to maintain institutional neutrality during the electoral period.
The 'populares' had requested that a violation of article 50.2 of the electoral law be declared, that the statements be removed from institutional channels, and that a disciplinary procedure be opened. The resolution separately examines the interventions of October 15 and 16 and rules out initiating a sanctioning procedure for either of them.
In the first, Sánchez spoke about the sustainability of pensions, accused the PP and Vox of putting them at risk, and defended the socialist aspiration to also win the Senate. The JEC considers that he exceeded the exposition of the matters of the European Council and appreciates expressions "difficult to reconcile with the demands of institutional neutrality". However, it takes into account that it was an informal attention to journalists and that it has not been sufficiently proven that it was an act organized or financed by public authorities.
The appearance on the 16th did have an institutional character and was held with public media, at the headquarters of the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU. The Board places "on the limit of what is admissible" the statement that a "progressive government in Spain" was "very necessary", but concludes that the statements, valued as a whole and taking into account their context, do not reach sufficient entity to open a file. Even so, it requires Sánchez to respect the duty of neutrality and avoid statements contrary to article 50.2 in institutional acts.
The Moncloa file remains open
The obligation of neutrality applies from the electoral call until the vote, without waiting for the start of the campaign. Article 50.2 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG) prohibits acts organized or financed by public authorities that include allusions to management achievements or expressions coinciding with the campaigns of the candidacies. The Government can continue to exercise its functions and report on its agreements during that period.
This Thursday's filing corresponds to different events from those that led to the file opened on October 15 for the press conference on the 6th in Moncloa, after the approval of two new housing decrees. In that case, the JEC found elements to investigate a possible infraction and ordered the removal of certain statements from official channels. That procedure remains open and its initiation does not equate to an already imposed sanction.
In the same meeting this Thursday, the Board has also archived a complaint from the far-right Vox for the institutional dissemination of housing measures, published on Moncloa's channels. It considers that the message is limited to objectively exposing the agreements of the Council of Ministers and, as a whole, lacks the electoral connotations prohibited by law.
Different was the outcome of the PP's complaint against the socialist Víctor Ruiz de Diego for an Instagram publication that used popular distinctive signs and attributed measures such as pension cuts to them. The JEC partially upholds it and orders the immediate removal of the messages, considering that their graphic elements can mislead about authorship and violate the principle of electoral transparency. Also in this case, it rejects opening a sanctioning procedure.
