Nine members of the CGPJ ask that the Plenary demand that Congress prepare a report and that all their powers on appointments be returned to them; while the Supreme warns again of an “unsustainable situation”
The bill of law registered by the PSOE to re-modify the Organic Law of the Judiciary and accelerating the renewal of the Constitutional Court -which will allow the current conservative majority of the court to be reversed- has set off alarms both in the governing body of the judges and in the Supreme Court and in broad areas of the judicial career, which accuse the President of the Government Pedro Sanchez, of trying to submit this state power to the interests of the Executive.
The reform was announced in a surprising way last Thursday -according to United We Can, they were not even notified-, and will allow the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) to avoid the limitation that was imposed more than a year ago to make appointments and power thus designate the two magistrates of the Constitutional Court that correspond to them per fee.
A majority of the Council criticizes the maneuver and requests that its capacity to make appointments be fully restored in the judicial leadership, while regretting that, after remaining in office for more than three and a half years, they are now used so that the Government achieves its objective of renewing the TC and thereby achieving a progressive majority in said body.
The conservative sector of the CGPJ of this body has forced to take the issue to the plenary session of the body that will meet this Thursday. There are nine members who sign the letter, to which this newspaper has had access, and they request, specifically, let Congress ask for a report to the CGPJ on the new reform before discussing it and that this includes also returning “and fully the powers for judicial and governmental-judicial appointments of a discretionary nature.”
Likewise, they demand that the governing body of the judges go to the European Commission to report on the aforementioned bill. What results from the debate in plenary could depend including the effectiveness of the reformsince if the governing body of the judges does not fulfill its two appointments, the renewal in the Constitutional Court will not be possible.
According to the sources consulted by El Periódico de España, a newspaper of the same group, Prensa Ibérica, that this newspaper, the proposal will be in line with what was expressed by the PP, which ensures that it is still willing to renew and hopes “a gesture to regain trust & rdquor; after the reform registered last week by the PSOE. This gesture would go through two options: withdraw it or repeal it altogether so that the CGPJ can make any appointment even if it is in office.
Contradictory in incoherent
The text that will be discussed on Thursday states that, as can be read in the explanatory statement of the reform, its purpose is to avoid the difficulties that the current text entails for the renewal of constitutional bodies.
“Such justification is contradictory and incoherent: the Constitutional Body is the Court of Guarantees, as are the Courts and Tribunals, served by judges and magistrates who are members of the Judicial Power, whose superior, in all orders, is the Supreme Court, in accordance with the Constitution,” they say.
The key to this matter lies in the consensus that is needed so that the governing body of the judges elects its two magistrates of the TC, which by unwritten tradition must be one of progressive sensitivity and the other conservative. Some of the members consulted do not rule out that, as a response to the government’s handling, it becomes difficult to reach 12 votes that are needed to appoint the magistrates of the TC.
Supreme and associations
For its part, the Supreme Court regrets having remained oblivious to the reform and, this Monday, its government room has requested that the Congress of Deputies and the Senate be transmitted its “deep concern” because the lack of renewal of the Council is creating a situation that, if it continues, “will be unsustainable”.
“The gradual increase in vacancies that cannot be covered reduces the ability of the Supreme Court to fulfill the function that the Constitution and the laws entrust to it and in a short time it will cause extraordinary difficulties for its operation,” says the high court.
The problem is especially pressing in the Contentious-Administrative Chamber, where another magistrate will soon retire, Octavio Smith, that he has waived the two-year extension that he had initially agreed to. If the problem remains unresolved, the next person to leave the room will be Ines Huerta, at the beginning of 2023, leaving it already without the minimum quorum to form all its sections.
Platform
Besides, the Civic Platform for Judicial Independence, which brings together magistrates, university professors and lawyers, considers that the new legislative reform “constitutes an attack on the separation of powers, by seeking government control of the highest interpreter of the Constitution as well as the appointment of high judicial positions.”
According to a statement from this group, the proposed law “is part of a broader campaign to submit Justice to politics with absolute disregard for the basic principles of the rule of law and to the regulations of European transnational institutions”, for which he has asked the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament “the urgent adoption of whatever measures it deems appropriate, including going to European Comissionto other committees of the European Parliament, to the GREEK (Group of States Against Corruption of the Council of Europe) to the Venice Commission or the Spanish legislative chambers”.
As for the associate judges, both the majority Professional Association of the Judiciary (APM)as the Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association (AJFV) and the Independent Judicial Forum (IJF) have strongly criticized the proposal of the Socialist Parliamentary Group. It just unchecks Judges and Judges for Democracy (JJpD) that describes it as “welcome” and stresses that it is the consequence of the blockade to the renewal that the PP has been maintaining for three and a half years.