The Ministry of the Interior has become a sort of permanent powder keg where Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska resists despite the wear and tear of his management and his figure. Yesterday, while the head of the Interior finished his telematic intervention before the Justice and Interior Commission of the European Parliament to report on the tragedy of the fence in Melilla on June 24, an event that has led to censorship by government partners, the departure of María Gámez as director of the Civil Guard was known. An unexpected march that occurs in the midst of anxiety for the Armed Institute, immersed in various scandals such as the Cuarteles case or the Mediator case.
The official justification given by Gámez is that her departure is her own decision and that it is due to the fact that her husband "has been summoned in the framework of a judicial procedure." Specifically, as it became known this Wednesday, the judge accused him of prevarication, embezzlement and money laundering for the diversion of public funds from the IDEA agency to a business plot.
His march adds another notch to a ministry that lives in a permanent state of upheaval, not only criticized by the opposition, but also censored by parties like ERC or Bildu that support Pedro's governance Sanchez. Marlaska is also a minister who causes misgivings in United Podemos due to his positions in the gag law or the management of migrants with tragic cases such as the one experienced in Melilla or the hot returns.
Only Sánchez seems to be the lifeline, the handle that allows the continuity of the Minister of the Interior. Always in the eye of the hurricane due to his management and his decisions, only in July 2021, when the President of the Government undertook the profound remodeling of the Government, were there signs that he could leave. He did not do it - in the PSOE they believe that because Sánchez did not find a replacement - and he will not do it in the imminent government crisis, which will only affect the ministers Reyes Maroto and Carolina Darias, candidates in Madrid and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, respectively. , the 28-M.
It is not that Gámez's departure, in the middle of the scandal over the Cuarteles case or the Mediator case, is a shield for Marlaska and shields her, since Sánchez was not contemplating her departure now, but it does allow her to in the midst of these serious and uncomfortable matters the departure of a weighty, important position, such as the director of the Civil Guard. Because the truth is that these are issues that dot the minister squarely due to the decisions, in this case inactions, of his department.
It should be remembered that far from solving the problem that a nuclear part of the Civil Guard has with the Cuarteles case -the alleged ghost works in 13 command posts in Spain carried out by a businessman linked to the Mediator case-, the Interior Minister halted the investigation of the magistrate Isabel Durantez who investigates if there are signs of corruption. The judge needed an expert opinion to determine if these works were carried out or, on the contrary, they were never carried out. And in January 2022 she asked Interior for help. She requested an expert. Given the silence of the Marlaska department, in February she again requested this professional without whom the cause cannot advance.
Two months after this request, on April 5, the General Planning Sub-directorate, dependent on the ministry, informed the court, via email, of the appointment of an architect expert. On the 11th she was appointed by the magistrate and on April 26 she appeared and accepted the position. On June 9, 2022, the General Planning Sub-directorate, via e-mail, informed the court that the expert witness was resigning. Textually it said: "Once the documentation has been studied, there has been evidence of the magnitude of the expert opinion to be carried out, which is absolutely incompatible with the responsibilities assigned to this Sub-directorate."
On November 3 of last year, the magistrate through an order again required the Ministry of the Interior. She ordered him to appoint -before the resignation of the expert witness in June- other architects from both the central and peripheral services to carry out the expert opinion. Since the withdrawal of the first architect, five months had passed in which the Ministry had not ruled despite knowing the instructor's need to carry out an expert opinion.
Given the inaction of the ministry, the judge turned to the Treasury in search of the expert opinion that would allow her to unblock what is possibly the most delicate case that the Armed Institute has faced since the Roldán era.
In addition, the instructor, the Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney's Office protested the permissiveness of the Ministry of the Interior before the resignation of the architect. The Cuarteles case continues in a dead end pending the appointment of an expert by the Ministry of Finance given the non-receipt of his request by Grande-Marlaska.
Cuarteles case, Mediator case and, to these two causes that dot the Civil Guard, is added the Grapa case, reports Efe, in which a Madrid court investigates about twenty people, physical and legal, for alleged rigging in related contracts with body uniforms.
However, yesterday Gámez limited her decision to the summons of her husband in "a judicial proceeding" and described her decision as "difficult", but assured that she was doing it to protect her family and the Civil Guard. Marlaska, who appeared after her, stated that she had no doubts about Gámez's "honorability" and defined her resignation as "unfair but necessary", "exemplary in democracy."
The departure of Gámez, designated as Marlaska since the dismissal of Pérez de los Cobos for not reporting on the investigation of the 8-M case, caused surprise in the Benemérita.
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