The president of the Diputación and the PP of Ourense, Manuel Baltar, has finally been charged with a crime against road safety for speeding after being caught last Sunday when he was driving the official vehicle of the provincial institution at 215 kilometers per hour.

The politician was located on the A-52, at the height of Zamora, when he was traveling to Madrid supposedly to participate in acts on his official agenda as president of the Ourense Provincial Council in the capital of Spain. At first, they communicated an administrative sanction, but this Monday, once the report was completed, the Traffic subsector of the Civil Guard of Ourense accused him of committing a crime.

According to official information from the Civil Guard, they attribute a crime to him under article 379.1 of the Penal Code that has already been officially notified. This article includes prison sentences of three to six months, a fine of six to twelve months or work for the benefit of the community of 31 to 90 days, in addition to the deprivation of the right to drive motor vehicles and mopeds for a period of more than one and up to four years.

Baltar’s conduct constitutes a crime for driving above 212 kilometers per hour in a section that is limited to 120, that is, more than 60 km/hour above the permitted speed.

The complaint to the president of the PP and the Provincial Council has led the PSOE of Ourense to demand his “immediate resignation”. However, from the Popular Party they have not adopted any decision. Before the accusation was officially known, when only the administrative sanction was known, the president of the Xunta de Galicia and the Galician PP, Alfonso Rueda, ruled it out.

Rueda, who spoke with Baltar at least twice after the news broke, said that he “acknowledges the facts.” In addition, he added that he is “sure that the first one to feel it is himself.” In this sense, he delved into that “the first one who is not satisfied with that behavior that he had is himself.”

Regarding the possible political responsibilities of Baltar’s actions, the Galician president pointed out that “the fact that you are a political representative is what motivates me to answer this question at this moment and that there is this expectation and this level of attention that probably with a person who did not have those responsibilities it would not be happening”.

The PSOE of Ourense considers “indecent” and “absolutely unacceptable in a democracy” that the president of the Provincial Council committed this “serious crime” and that he did it “recklessly driving an official car in another province to do activities on a Sunday, which has not yet explained”.

“Where was Baltar really going with the car paid for by everyone if no act in Madrid or outside Ourense appeared on his official agenda, neither that Sunday nor the following Monday?”, the PSOE wondered, although the Diputación and Alfonso Rueda do point out that he had official meetings on Monday in Madrid. In addition, the Galician president indicated that “Baltar habitually uses” the official car when he goes to these official acts.

“Many times, as president of the Provincial Council, he drives Provincial Council cars. Therefore, regardless of the speed, I think this is not very relevant,” Ruede explained in statements to the media in Pontevedra.

For the Socialists, Baltar “confuses the Provincial Council with his home” and they recall that the Provincial Council’s code of ethics, drawn up in “handwriting” by Baltar himself, determines that the institution’s officials “should not conduct their conduct in such in a way that could damage the image of the organization it represents before the public or affect its institutional reputation”.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project