The former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has described this Thursday as a "truly remarkable attack" on the independence of the Judiciary the procedure that the National Court is handling regarding the alleged surveillance and the discrediting campaign directed against Beatriz Biedma, the judge from Badajoz who handled the case related to the contracting of David Sánchez, the brother of the current president of the Executive.
Rajoy has stressed that these actions "did not fit in the mind of any decent person," statements he made during a forum held at Casa América in Madrid on the occasion of the presentation of the book "Sebastián Piñera in 50 global voices".
At another point in his remarks, he warned that populism constitutes "the greatest enemy that democracies have today," a challenge that, as he indicated, affects "not only Ibero-America, but also Europe".
Along these lines, he defended that "enemies are dictatorships, but populisms are even greater enemies," although he highlighted that the position of "Spanish liberal center-right, has been able to remain as the leading political force".
He also drew attention to those who reduce democracy to the mere holding of elections. "It happened that someone understood that democracy was voting and once they elect you you do what you consider appropriate and convenient," Rajoy reproached, before emphasizing that "democracy is not only voting," but rather involves respecting "freedoms, individual rights, human rights, the rule of law, the primacy of the law, the separation of powers and judicial independence".