Spain in turmoil over Garzón suspension
As the Consejo General del Poder Judicial meets to decide on Garzón’s request for a seven-month leave of absence to work at the ICC, indignation about the Council’s decision, this morning, to suspend the groundbreaking investigative magistrate, is spreading rapidly, with prominent jurists and intellectuals from Spain and elsewhere speaking out, and grassroot activist organizations calling for mass protest meetings in large cities tonight. Meanwhile, the controversy is sparking a more general debate about the harmful long-term effects of Francoism on contemporary Spanish democracy, particularly, but not only, in the judicial system. Representatives of the Socialist government have kept their reaction to a minimum, requesting respect for a judicial process which, they state, “is not over yet.”
