The lieutenant prosecutor of the Supreme Court, María de los Ángeles Sánchez Conde, has opened investigation proceedings regarding the leader of Voz, Santiago Abascal, for his words regarding the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
In this way, it accepts the complaint presented by the PSOE, which warns that it may be committing “repeated incitement to hatred” against the PSOE, and incurring crimes of libel, slander and serious threats to the Government of the nation, and other State institutions.
This was stated in the letter to the Prosecutor's Office in which the PSOE responds to Santiago Abascal's statement in an interview with the Argentine newspaper 'Clarín', during which he stated that "there will be a given moment when the people will want to hang him by his feet," in allusion to Pedro Sánchez.
For the PSOE, "the requirements are met to consider that the conduct is worthy of criminal reproach for violating the right to honor in accordance with the crimes of insults and slander, the passive subject being the president and the Government of the Nation." In his opinion, "the conduct, in addition to harming the honor of the members of the Government, which enjoys reinforced protection, harms the prestige of this institution, as such, in front of the citizens, who have been who through their democratic election and the rules that regulate it who have placed its components at the head of it, thereby exceeding all limits of political criticism, and as the Constitutional Court said, acting against the “duty of political solidarity.”
The lieutenant prosecutor will collect a series of procedures to determine if Abascal has been able to commit a crime or if it falls within freedom of expression.
To this end, he has requested a report from the hate crimes prosecutor, to find out if the expressions of the Vox leader can be included in this classification.
In addition, he demands that the judicial police carry out an analysis of the impact of his words on other media and social networks.
And finally, he asks for cooperation from the Argentine justice system, the country where the interview was broadcast, to find out if Abascal's words in his country can constitute a crime and therefore the requirement of double criminality is met.
In the letter, the prosecutor explains that the interview cannot be disconnected from the political moment that is being experienced in Spain, from "serious political unrest." She warns that a Vox youth brand has promoted a multitude of violent acts at the Ferraz headquarters where "seriously offensive" phrases are chanted against Sánchez, the Government and the socialist party.
The prosecutor also warns that Abascal himself has responded to these conditions and has asked the members of the State security forces and bodies not to obey his commands.
For this reason, he also demands that the police inform him of the identity of the organizers of the demonstrations and concerts at the national headquarters of the PSOE.
