Dolores, 'Lola', Delgado has put an end to his career as state attorney general. The reasons given; a serious health problem in his back that took him to an operating table a few months ago and from which he has not recovered. He resigns after two and a half years of a mandate questioned by a part of the judiciary.
After announcing her resignation, there are already voices that believe that her deteriorating state of health has been able to accelerate her departure after the departure of Adriana Lastra, former deputy general secretary of the PSOE, was announced a few hours ago, also for health reasons.
Delgado's appointment was very controversial for two reasons that have haunted him during these two years. The first, that she was elected attorney general without interruption after leaving office as Minister of Justice. Part of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) -the conservatives- understood that she did not meet the suitability requirements, due to the image of lack of impartiality that permeated her appointment.
Pedro Sánchez's decision was appealed by the PP and Vox before the Supreme Court, but due to a technical issue of lack of legitimacy, the high court did not discuss the merits of the matter, which was none other than whether a member of the Government can pass be the head of the Prosecutor's Office, a position in which independence and impartiality must prevail.
During this time, members of the public prosecutor's career -both from progressive and conservative associations as well as those not affiliated- have recognized that this decision by the Executive has harmed the image of the Public Ministry, by raising suspicions that it has become a political body, although it has not be true. That is to say, as some of them remind us, "the Caesar's wife, in addition to being one, must appear to be."
In an interview with La Vanguardia, Delgado stated that what he has had is political opposition within the Prosecutor's Office itself, but it is not legal or professional opposition. "There has been a level of harassment that has not occurred before with any state attorney general," he warned.
The answer to this is the blow suffered by the association from which it comes, the Progressive Union of Prosecutors (UPF) in the last composition of the Fiscal Council last May, in which it only obtained two members compared to 6 of the conservative Association of Prosecutors.
The second reason for controversy in his appointment was his contacts with former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo when he was a prosecutor of the National Court. During her time as Minister of Justice, some audios between the two and former judge Baltasar Garzón came to light.
United We Can has never seen with good eyes the figure of Dolores Delgado both in the Executive and in the State Attorney General's Office, precisely because of these links. However, Sánchez trusted her and not only kept her as a minister as a result of the controversy, but later appointed her attorney general.
The arrival of Delgado in the Prosecutor's Office was not easy. His landing was in February 2020 and a month later the covid-19 pandemic would arrive. The work of the Prosecutor's Office was essential and Delgado has been proud of the work done. Once the pandemic was over, the attorney general launched the investigation in nursing homes to find out if they were abandoned to their fate.
In her mandate she has also had the investigation of the king emeritus -which was finally shelved-, dealing with the war in Ukraine and even helped the attorney general of Afghanistan leave his country, a milestone that she remembers with special satisfaction, as recounted in an interview for La Vanguardia.
His mandate has been surrounded by controversies with his opponents from both the judicial and political worlds. Recently, she was in the spotlight because the PSOE tried to approve an amendment so that once her mandate ended, she would become a Chamber prosecutor -a collegiate body made up of Supreme Court prosecutors-, a higher rank in the prosecutor's career and that she would not he boasts because he came from being a prosecutor of the National High Court. The widespread rejection of this proposal forced the Socialists to withdraw it.
In addition, he has been the subject of criticism within the headquarters of the Prosecutor's Office on Fortuny Street for his clashes with the prosecutors in charge of the procés or appointments of prosecutors who have been appealed by the majority association for their lack of motivation. Another issue that has generated a lot of tension within the Prosecutor's Office was the departure from Anticorruption of one of the prosecutors in the Villarejo case.
This means that once his departure has been announced, he should return to the National Court. However, this does not seem to be happening. The Government has already announced that his replacement is Álvaro García, until now his number two. García was a prosecutor in Galicia and a member of the UPF and came to the Attorney General's Office hand in hand with Delgado. The foreseeable thing is that he appoints his predecessor prosecutor of the Chamber and gives him a position in a specialized Prosecutor's Office as Delgado already did with his predecessor, María José Segarra.
Sources from the conservative AF, define Delgado's mandate as "dark, orphan of doctrine that has assumed the institution in disrepute." According to his detractors, both his appointment and his actions "has ruined the image of impartiality and neutrality of the Public Ministry." From what was his association, they defend the work he has done in the public ministry in an attempt at transparency, modernization and the defense of gender equality.
The new attorney general, Álvaro García, has so far been Delgado's right-hand man and, therefore, is the symbol of continuity. Sources from the Fiscal Council maintain that this is a sign that the Executive wants to keep Delgado's mandate in force in some way and that is why it has appointed the person of his highest confidence.
