The Sección Sexta of the Audiencia Provincial de Madrid has rejected the application for annulment filed by Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE against the previously confirmed discontinuance of proceedings concerning a large banner displayed by the association HazteOír The banner, displayed in front of the Congress of Deputies depicted the President of the Government with the word “corrupto” (“corrupt”). The higher court’s decision concerns procedural matters only and does not alter the already confirmed end of the proceedings.
The chamber stated that the chosen “incidente de nulidad” was not intended to enable it to review the substance of its own earlier decision. Such an attempt would amount to a “recurso de súplica” before the same panel, which the law does not provide for in this situation. Nor were there any identifiable procedural errors that would justify annulment. According to the court, the decision was in line with the opinion of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The court did not assess the substance of the statements on the banner in this ruling.
The procedural position now confirmed followed a lengthy legal process: first, an investigating judge discontinued the proceedings against HazteOír. The grounds were that the campaign essentially fell under the protection of political expression and that the elements of a criminal offence of defamation had not been sufficiently established. In June 2026, the Sección Sexta of the Audiencia Provincial de Madrid upheld the discontinuance. The current ruling now rejects Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE’s attempt to reopen the case through an “incidente de nulidad”.
It remains to be seen whether the parties will pursue any further extraordinary legal avenues. There is currently no indication of new lines of criminal investigation. Legal experts note that the decision underlines the strict limits Spanish criminal proceedings place on the prescribed routes of appeal: once an investigating judge’s decision to discontinue proceedings has been upheld and becomes final, only narrowly defined procedural correction mechanisms are available. Politically, the ruling is another defeat for the President and his party before Madrid’s criminal courts, but it does not amount to a substantive endorsement of HazteOír’s campaign. Statements about possible next steps have so far come from the parties to the proceedings and have not been commented on by the courts.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).