Constitution Day has already passed and Ten years have passed since the current General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) was elected by the Congress and the Senate in 2013. Its 20 members (now only 16 remain), which should have been renewed in 2018, have been like this more than five long years of extension. And this week there has not been the slightest indication that the great gulf between Sánchez and Feijóo is going to narrow. Nor that the constitutional mandate regarding the CGPJ can be fulfilled. Because?
Renewing the Council requires an agreement between the two major parties because, to guarantee their plurality, The Constitution requires a very strong three-fifths majority for election in the Senate and Congress.. But, since 2018, the PP has refused to agree to the renewal with different arguments. Well, Pablo Casado agreed on one that would have made Manuel Marchena, president of the Criminal Chamber, the new president of the CGPJ and the Supreme Court. But it did not reach port because the leader of the PP, Ignacio Cosidó, in an internal communication that was reported, stated that it was a good pact because it would be controlled “through the back door.” the Criminal Court. Immediately, Marchena resigned and everything fell apart.
And the situation has become unsustainable. To force the PP, the Government passed a law that prevented a functioning Council from continuing to appoint the presidents of the provincial courts, of the superior courts of the Communities and the judges of the Supreme Court and today 85 senior judicial positions are vacant, 29 in the Supreme Court. In 2022 its then president, Carlos Lesmes, supported by the Rajoy Government, resigned with great scandal to force the renewal. But even then, nothing at all and everything continued to deteriorate.
The latest ‘sweetened’ position of the PP – after Commissioner Reynders made it clear that renewal was a priority – admits that the Council is renewed with the current law, but demands that, at the same time, the law is changed so that the twelve members of the judicial career of the Council (the other eight are prestigious jurists) are not appointed by the chambers, from a list voted for by the judges, but rather elected directly by the judges themselves.
The PP thus demands the change of a law that was voted with a majority of the PP, and with which the current Council was elected when Rajoy had an absolute majority. He argues that the CGPJ must be ‘depoliticized’, but with the current norm its conservative majority could not be revalidated, whereas if it were only the judges who chose the twelve of the judicial career Candidates close to the always majority and conservative Professional Association of the Judiciary (APM) would prevail.
Everything can be defended, but for five years the PP has not wanted to agree on a new CGPJ. And it is even more difficult for him to do it now when he is shaken and irritated because, despite winning the 23-J elections, has not achieved a sufficient majority to govern. Furthermore, Sánchez has only managed to be invested due to an agreement with Puigdemont that he has demanded an amnesty law that the PP – and not only the PP – believes to be unconstitutional. And Feijóo bets that the amnesty will be Sánchez’s grave.
The PP has not wanted to renew the CGPJ for five years and Sánchez is legally president – Feijóo admits it – but with dark pacts with the independence movement that the PP believes are inadmissible. The PP does not fulfill a constitutional obligation, but it is the first parliamentary group and governs in the majority of communities (sometimes with Vox). And Sánchez has only been inaugurated thanks to the amnesty demanded by Puigdemont, which the majority of Spaniards do not approve, and with the support of the very diverse independentists, of Sumar… and from Podemos.
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When will it be possible to overcome this tense and devilish situation and govern with some normality? It seems that never before the European Championships in June 2024, which the PP wants to turn into a referendum against Sánchez. But the European elections are neither a referendum nor do the Government of Spain decide. So? Until the majority of the investiture is broken – which will happen one day – and elections are called?
The only guaranteed thing is great tension and high doses of instability. And despite everything… the Ibex advances. Curious!