Guirigay: Language difficult to understand; ruckus or noise; confusing noise of voices or shouts or discordant sounds; scene of confusion and disorder (Dictionary of use of Spanish, María Moliner).
Carlos Lesmespresident of Supreme Court and General Council of the Judiciary (Madrid, 1958), resigning ‘in pectore’, this Thursday 29 presided over what could be its last ordinary plenary session. There were four hours in which the most relevant issue was the last item on the agenda: the appointment of two magistrates of the Constitutional Court to replace magistrates Santiago Martínez-Vares (conservative) and Juan Antonio Xiol (progressive) that the previous CGPJ The current one was appointed in June 2013 for nine years, which expired on June 12.
If you take a look at the minutes of that appointment, the plenary session presided over by Judge Gonzalo Moliner, then president of the CGPJ, began at 10:00 a.m. and the voting ended at 10:40 a.m. Perhaps this single figure represents better than any other the deterioration of the judicial and constitutional system in Spain if it is compared with the obligation not fulfilled on September 13 to appoint the substitutes of the aforementioned magistrates. An obligation deliberately breached by the Popular Party’s policy, such as blocking the renewal of the CGPJ, which is headed, if no one remedy it, to serve two terms when it was elected, according to the law, for one of five years,
Around 11:40 this Thursday 29, Lesmes presented the last item on the agenda: the appointments. Relaxed, he explained that the competence to do so had been restored: “Appointments must be made because the Constitution and the Organic Law of the Judiciary say so, without waiting for anything and without waiting for anyone. And as for the renewal of the CGPJ I expect some gesture that there are serious negotiations. If it doesn’t happen in the next week, I’ll go and that’s it. I’m going to go I say that clearly.”
And then he asked for an accounting of why the negotiators have not reached an agreement since last September 8. The first one who gave the floor was the negotiator from the conservative sector, José Antonio Ballestero, who explained that they had had very little time, and that in two or three meetings the matter could not be resolved.
“I know what happened. But what are the forecasts today & rdquor ;, cut Lesmes. “What can be expected from them, what is the point of the decision taking so long? Is there something to be gained from it? Lesmes then came to rebuke him. But Ballestero was not daunted. “The methods that we apply now are the methods used for the last nine years by the president and they have given good results. The time to dedicate has never mattered. We do not understand why this methodology is now so uncomfortable for the president & rdquor ;.
enter the rag
Lesmes entered the rag: “We are talking about very different things & rdquor ;. And he asked the progressive group. Rafael Mozo and Álvaro Cuesta spoke. “We have a list of nine candidates of all colors. That they come to us with the argument that there are no candidates. We are not responsible for the unjustified delay that is occurring & rdquor ;.
The member Concha Sáez, who had warned in the plenary session on September 8 that any negotiation required a precise calendar, pointed out that they were at the same point.
A member, already in a disorderly caucus, said: “Of course we have to set a date, because if the president leaves…”
José María Macías, who had established himself on September 8 as an experienced negotiator to reject any calendar, warned: “We cannot work like this, with this pressure. And we will have to see what the European commissioner Didier Reynders who has traveled to Madrid says. And not just Reynders. He chairs a commission. We will have to see the European Commission. He will have to report to the EC and it will make a report and do what it has to do”
Another member, at the other end of the table, shouted: “Yes, why not? And we also wait to see what NATO thinks of all this.”
A vocal, then, tried to summarize the situation.
“Nope. We have to set a date, because in the meantime the president leaves us and leaves us hanging. Let’s see Monday, Tuesday, it’s going to be a little early, but maybe if we leave it for October 5 and if we have a proposal on the 5th. We tell the president and he convenes the extraordinary plenary session for the 6th. That on those dates there is nothing, then the following week & rdquor ;.
And to refine, another objected. “The following week there is a bridge and the National Holiday & rdquor ;. And, of course, Lesmes has to go to the Royal Palace to greet the Kings. “Then let’s look better on 13”
“Most have taken it for granted that the deadline is October 13 [`un mes exacto después del plazo del 13 de septiembre que el sector conservador logró que el CGPJ incumpliera la ley al negarse a hacer los nombramientos] but I have not heard Lesmes say it clearly”
With Lesmes or with Lesmes resigned? “I count on him going to be. But he didn’t say he was going to be either. Otherwise, she would have said that her commitment was until the first week of October & rdquor ;, the member told this newspaper.
The president of the TS and CGPJ behaved calmly in this gibberish, almost freed from tension, a contained tension that was breathed in the meeting, which was not angry. “A sloppy Lesmes & rdquor ;.
He laughed a lot near the end of the meeting.
“Hey look what they’re saying here. The president of the Professional Association of the Judiciary (APM) asks for your resignation, a member told him.
“Let’s see, let me see & rdquor;
The vocal handed him the mobile phone.
Lesmes read it while a conservative member was speaking.
María Jesús del Barco, president of the APM
And Lesmes tells him: “Look what your president says Maria Jesus del Barco…The president of the APM has summoned the president of the CGPJ to resign at the end of a meeting he has held with the European Commissioner for Justice, visiting Madrid,
The member replied: “I do not have a president, I have a president & rdquor;
Lesmes laughed out loud. & rdquor; I am going to make María Jesús very happy & rdquor ;, she replied.
The conservative sector wants Lesmes out.
“Those who have supported him for so many years, his own, are looking forward to him leaving. It’s already a nuisance & rdquor ;, said the member consulted.
If you want to get rid of the pressure of the appointments that Lesmes has been exerting, do you want the president of the First Chamber of the Supreme Court to replace him now, Francisco Marin Castan?
Related news
That is to say: a substitute who has not been elected by the members, who lacks democratic legitimacy, who falls like a paratrooper.
For the conservative sector, this would allow the film to start again and postpone ‘sine die’ the appointments in the TC, the renewal of the CGPJ and prolong the agony of the two institutions