The professor of Civil Law Vicente Guilarte, member of the conservative sector of the General Council of the Judiciaryhas been appointed new president substitute of the organ in replacement of Rafael Mozo, who leaves office due to forced retirement having reached the age of 72 this Wednesday. His replacement has been chosen because she is the next oldest member according to the rules established by the Council itself after the resignation of Carlos Lesmes in October last year.
Guilarte assumes the position after a group of six members of the two sensibilities present in the CGPJ presented a letter to the Plenary in which they urged a debate “about the conditions for the performance” of the Presidency of this constitutional body, given that the professor and lawyer did not act exclusively as a member. For these vowels there was no doubt thate the candidate should abandon his academic work and as a lawyer in order to take office.
For his part, Mozo has taken advantage of the coincidence of the Plenary session and the date of his retirement to send a letter to all the staff of the Council saying goodbye to the position, in which he warns of the “constitutional abnormality” in which this body is located, which should have been renewed in December 2018.
In the letter, he urges the “political forces” to behind the July 23th renew “immediately” the governing body of judges “no excuse”.
It also points out that “the recommendation contained in the European Commission Report on the Rule of Law in the EU leaves no room for doubt: that the CGPJ be renewed with priority character and that, immediately after the renewal, a process be initiated with a view to adapting the appointment of its members of judicial origin, taking into account the European standards on the Councils of the Magistracy”.
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“I reiterate from here, with the firmness that the long time that has elapsed allows me – since December 4, 2018 – my request to the political forces concerned, so that, without any excuse or pretext, these recommendations are taken seriously and so that they proceed immediately, as soon as the electoral process in which we are immersed ends, to the renewal of this governing body, which demands not only the Spanish Constitution, but also the EU”, it expressly states.
Mozo has also warned that “the maintenance of this situation weakens and erodes the main institutions of Spanish Justice and, therefore, of our Rule of Law”.