He Supreme Court This Tuesday, it has estimated the three appeals presented by Colonel Diego Pérez de los Cobos against the promotions to general (at the proposal of Fernando Grande-Marlaska) of three other colonels of the Civil Guard who were below him on the scale established by the Superior Council of the Civil Guard.
The Third Administrative Litigation Chamber of the high court has estimated the resources, has annulled the appointments and has ordered the issuance of a report from the general director of the Civil Guard that justifies the decision, as provided in article 67.2 of the Benemérita personnel regime law. The court’s decision has been communicated to the parties, but the content of the sentences will not be known for a few days.
Is the second fight that Pérez de los Cobos wins against Grande-Marlaska in the Supreme Court, after the body considered that the dismissal of the Civil Guard as head of the Madrid Command – ordered by the Interior – was “unjustified.” In that ruling from March of this year, the Supreme Court ordered Pérez de los Cobos to be reinstated in his position and compensate him for the years he had spent away from it.
De los Cobos’ fight for promotion to general
This Tuesday’s ruling arises from three royal decrees approved by the Council of Ministers – at the proposal of Marlaska and taking into consideration the opinion of Margarita Robles – to appoint generals Francisco Javier Sánchez, Arturo Prieto and Antonio José Rodríguez-Medelall of them from the promotion after Pérez de los Cobos.
The appellant appeared as number one in the classification prepared by the Superior Council of the Civil Guard for the appointment. This collegiate advisory and advisory body is part of the General Directorate of the Armed Institute and prepares these preference lists that, According to the Interior, they are not binding. However, Marlaska’s decision to put the three appointments before that of Pérez de los Cobos is unusual (the appellant defends) because it omits the recommendations of the Superior Council and because seniority is traditionally taken as a weighting factor in the appointments of the civil Guard.
After the ruling of the Supreme Court, the general director of the Armed Institute, a position held by Leonardo Marcos Since June, he must write a report in the terms established by the personnel regime law of the body he directs.
According to article 67.2, “the evaluations for promotion by election to the positions of Brigadier General and Colonel will be carried out by the Superior Council of the Civil Guard and submitted to the Minister of Defense by the director of the Civil Guard, who will add his own report”. The appointments must be justified and it will be necessary to reason why Pérez de los Cobos was not appointed despite the fact that The Superior Council of the Civil Guard placed him at number one from the list for promotion to Brigadier General.
The second setback of the Supreme Court against Marlaska
With this Tuesday’s ruling, there are now two setbacks that the high court has dealt to Grande-Marlaska, both this year, in relation to Pérez de los Cobos. The previous one took place the last week of March, when the Supreme Court ruled that The dismissal of the colonel as head of the Civil Guard Command in Madrid was not “justified”. An issue that, although independent of the promotion of the Brigadier generals, is part of the history of judicial battles between the colonel and the Minister of the Interior.
Pérez de los Cobos reached this position in 2018 and was dismissed at the request of Grande-Marlaska in 2020. Everything happened as a result of the feminist demonstration that took place in Madrid on March 8 of that year, days before the beginning of confinement due to the pandemic. The investigative court number 51 of Madrid opened a case against the Government delegate in the capital to investigate whether he had committed a crime by allowing the demonstration.
The command headed by Colonel Pérez de los Cobos sent a report to the investigating judge of the case in which it was concluded that “The Government already knew since January the real severity of the coronavirus epidemic” and should never have allowed concentration. On May 25 of that year, the Ministry of the Interior reported the decision to dismiss Pérez de los Cobos due to “loss of confidence” in him.
The colonel took the matter to the Central Administrative Litigation Court, which agreed with him and Marlaska took it to the National Court, which ruled against him. But Pérez de los Cobos came to the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court which, as now, ruled in his favor and sent his restitution to the head of the Madrid Command.
