Madrid (EFE).- The Central Electoral Board (JEC) has communicated this Thursday to the government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, the opening of a disciplinary file after two prior notices for making “electoralist” statements at the press conference after the Council of Ministers in Moncloa, a few days before the elections.
This decision comes after a complaint by the PP in which it complained about statements made by the spokesperson in Moncloa on April 25 in response to a question from the media about the PP’s criticism of the exhumation of the remains of the founder of the Falange, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera.
The JEC points out that the spokesperson responded with “assessments and critical assessments of the position and decisions of the main opposition party”, all of this “in the course of an institutional intervention and making use of public resources”.
“Although the absence of premeditation mitigates the responsibility of the minister spokesperson, it does not exempt her from the duty of diligence with which she must behave in her institutional interventions, avoiding the issuance of statements with electoral connotations, even in those situations in which there are journalists. that they ask questions that could compromise their constitutional duty of neutrality (…) which intensifies during the electoral period”, he adds.
The two previous notices
In addition, the Central Electoral Board recalls that it had reprimanded the Government spokesperson on two occasions after receiving complaints from the PP for statements also made in Moncloa in the pre-election period, with the municipal and regional elections for May already called.
The first time was due to statements made on April 4 during the press conference after the Council of Ministers in which the spokesperson criticized Feijóo for not congratulating himself on the good employment data.
And the second for some assessments made on April 18 from the same place in response to several questions from journalists in which he assured that the PP’s policies on housing were “failed” and praised the action of the Executive in this matter.
For all these reasons, the Central Electoral Board determines on this third occasion to initiate a disciplinary file against the Government spokesperson “to determine whether the eventual infringement is deserving of sanction”, a decision against which an administrative contentious appeal can be filed within the term two months from notification.
Rodríguez violated the General Electoral Regime Law
The Central Electoral Board considers that Rodríguez has violated with his statements article 50.2 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG), which prohibits from the time the elections are called and until they are held “any act organized or financed directly or indirectly by the public authorities that contains allusions to the achievements or achievements obtained”.
In addition, the Central Electoral Board concludes that the Third Vice President of the Government, Teresa Ribera, also violated this article with some statements made in Moncloa at the same press conference on April 25, but does not open a sanction file against her in this case.
On the other hand and in another resolution, the Central Electoral Board has dismissed a complaint by the PP for some publications made by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, through its official page and its social networks, which according to the popular could suppose a violation of the principle of neutrality of public powers.