Despite the fact that both the Government and the PSOE leadership supported José Antonio Griñán and Manuel Chaves the day before, and despite meeting in Warsaw at a bilateral summit with Poland, Pedro Sánchez has not missed the opportunity today to reaffirm his position before the advanced decision of the Supreme Court that confirms the convictions of both former presidents of the Andalusian Government for the case of the fraudulent ERE. A ruling not expected less painful for all socialists, especially before the confirmed conviction of Griñán for a crime of embezzlement of public funds, which imposes a sentence of six years in prison. “They are paying the just for sinners”, warned the Prime Minister.
"We respect, as we have always done, judicial decisions," Sánchez began by alleging. “We have known the judicial ruling, after eleven years, with two individual votes. We do not know the content of the sentence and therefore until September we will not be able to have a clear reading of what the causes are”, he argued. “But I would like to remind you of something very obvious, and that is that Chaves and Griñán resigned from their political responsibilities more than five years ago. What's more, not only have they not been convicted, they have not even been accused of having profited or taken a cent from a euro, nor of course having irregularly financed political organizations”, the Chief Executive replied. “There was no personal enrichment, nor was there financing of political parties, and what there was were resignations more than five years ago, assuming their political responsibilities”, he insisted, to unmark Chaves and Griñán from the corruption of the ERE scandal fraudulent in Andalusia.
“This government has shown, not only in words but in deeds, that it is a clean government, that it has been relentless against corruption, and that is why we have always condemned the behavior in this case of those who took advantage of a mechanism approved by Parliament. of Andalusia, which helped hundreds of workers and companies in times of great difficulty”, Sánchez pointed out. The mechanism of the ERE approved in the Andalusian Parliament, by the way, also had the favorable vote of the Popular Party. “In any case, neither Chaves nor Grinán can be said to have had anything to do with what I have mentioned before,” Sánchez insisted, referring to political corruption. "In this case, both Chaves and Griñán, we can affirm that they are paying the just for sinners", highlighted the Chief Executive.
And, expressly asked if he contemplates the possibility that the Government could pardon Chaves and Griñán in the near future, Sánchez has demanded "not speculate on hypothetical futures." But the President of the Government has begun to pave this way for an eventual granting of grace measures. "We logically respect, how could it be otherwise, the steps that can be taken by the defenses," Sánchez warned. “What the Government is going to do is always act within the framework of the law and collaborating with justice, as we have always done”, he has settled.
