The dismissal of Diego Pérez de los Cobos has been the loudest controversy of the Fernando Grande-Marlaska ministry. In fact, the abrupt departure of the general from the Madrid Command has been sustained for practically the entire legislature until yesterday when the Minister of the Interior finally executed the Supreme Court ruling and reinstated him in office after three years of political punishment. The firmness with which Grande-Marlaska showed the colonel the exit door for refusing to give him secret judicial information about the 8-M demonstration that was held at the gates of the pandemic and his resistance to executing the Supreme Court decision show that Pérez de los Cobos had become a personal matter for the minister.
The path of no return between the two occurred a year after Pedro Sánchez landed in Moncloa and has continued until now. In these three and a half years, the differences have increased. The colonel has always had the support of the entire Civil Guard, an institution that, on the other hand, has spent the entire legislature censoring the decisions of the minister -apart from the dismissal of Pérez de los Cobos- from behind doors.
In the heart of the Armed Institute, it has been difficult to digest the ways of Grande-Marlaska in many aspects and his management model. There has been no understanding and his position with the colonel's case has been very present in Guzmán el Bueno, headquarters of the General Directorate of the Benemérita.
After many setbacks and controversies, a broad sector of the Corps understood that with the decision of the Supreme Court the resignation of the minister would come, but this was not the case. Grande-Marlaska resisted and far from giving in, he vindicated himself. The execution of the sentence endows the rigid stance of the minister with a certain domestication. He removed the colonel and it is he who now returns him to his position as head of the Madrid Civil Guard Command. The dismissal has also been very present in the political arena. Always considered by the opposition as a "political cessation".
The court itself in its ruling reprimanded the minister for "inadmissible interference" in a judicial investigation. The resistance that the Minister of the Interior staged from the first day to comply with the judicial decision has accompanied him until the last moment, as demonstrated by the delay in executing the ruling. Interior had two months to restore the colonel but the time began to count from the moment in which the ruling was effectively notified to the Ministry.
It was a maneuver - contemplated in the law - to dilate the times and that the return of Pérez de los Cobos took place after the general elections. After the Supreme Court made its ruling public, the Minister of the Interior slipped formulas so as not to finish validating the decision of the magistrates and prepared the ground to avoid the return of the command of the Civil Guard in the event that the technicalities of the ruling were would allow
Grande-Marlaska then relied on the fact that she needed to know the textuality of the judicial decision, since the judges' decision was advanced but not its content. "We are going to wait to know the sentence and the technical reasoning of the High Court to dictate the resolutions that are appropriate in parameters and in technical-legal terms," she said then.
He insisted on making it clear that the colonel did not have his confidence and that the reasons that, according to him, led to the controversial dismissal persisted. "The Ministry of the Interior reiterates that the substantive reasons that decided the cessation persist and have been confirmed and consolidated with the elements known later," he indicated then without specifying which elements he was alluding to. These statements sparked controversy since he launched serious accusations that, although veiled, stirred up the Civil Guard. Fernando Grande-Marlaska avoided mentioning the investigation on 8-M to focus on the management of reserved funds, casting doubt on the command of the Benemérita on account of the Kitchen case. He declared that there was a misuse of the reserved funds, competition from the area that the colonel directed with various ministers.
«The lack of confidence remains. This type of people is the one in which this Minister of the Interior has not had, does not have and will not have confidence. Would you have confidence in those people who managed the reserved funds and who managed the funds without due control?
Commanders of the Armed Institute consulted by this newspaper take it for granted that after complying with the ruling of the High Court and returning Pérez de los Cobos to the Madrid Command, the Interior will dismiss him again. The fact of making it difficult for him to reincorporate will be followed by a "new dismissal". To do this, the same sources announce the "new tactics" that Interior is developing to win the battle in court in cases of similar characteristics.
The argument that an expulsion is accompanied by is based on a broad and imprecise term: "needs of the service" and not on "loss of trust". “This is how they are saved from being annulled by Justice because it is difficult for judges to assess this aspect. It's not as obvious to them as a loss of trust." "Linking the reason for a termination to 'service needs' is what is currently being done when the ministry does not know how to fix things," they conclude.
TERMINATION OF THE COLONEL. The Ministry of the Interior shows the exit door to Diego Pérez de los Cobos.
JUDICIAL ARC. The Investigating Court Number 51 of Madrid, a report questioned the celebration of the 8-M march and 129 other mass events in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis.
NATIONAL AUDIENCE. The Contentious Chamber agreed with the minister with the unanimous vote of the five magistrates.
SENTENCE. The Supreme Court corrects Grande-Marlaska and orders the reinstatement of the colonel.
THE EXECUTION. The Ministry of the Interior executes the ruling and incorporates the high command into its position.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
