28-M The Electoral Board resolves that the Government spokesperson made electoral use of the Council of Ministers and warns her not to do it again

The Central Electoral Board has urged the Government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, to “extreme her diligence” to prevent her from again “violating the principle of neutrality that the public powers are obliged to respect” after the call for regional elections and municipal councils on May 28.

In a resolution issued this Wednesday, the supervisory body refers to some statements that the also head of the Territorial Policy portfolio made at the press conference after the Council of Ministers last week in response to questions asked by journalists in the that described as “failed policies” the housing measures promoted by the PP.

“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 electoral manifestations,” maintains the Central Board, which in any case does not considers the imposition of a sanction appropriate.

Following the complaint made by the PP, from this body they argue that the “assessment statements” made by Rodríguez “disqualify the policies and programs of a certain political party in terms of housing, at the same time that they issue negative assessments regarding prominent leaders of the same, which carries unequivocal electoral connotations”.

In addition, it warns that “it is not the first time that this minister violates the prohibition established in article 50.2” of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (Loreg). “Now, it is not possible to appreciate recidivism since the pronouncement of the Central Electoral Board in this regard could not be known by it at the moment in which the second infraction occurred,” she adds.

According to said body, “the realization of evaluative assessments with an electoral connotation” such as those referred to could “be legitimate in the course of a campaign act or in the ordinary exercise of freedom of expression, but not in the performance of the institutional activity of a public authority”.

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