On January 10, 1984, according to the account in my book ‘José María Ruiz Mateos, the last magnate’ (Plaza & Janés, November 1985), the then president of the Constitutional Court, Manuel Garcia Pelayo, received me in his office at the headquarters of the Madrid street of Domenico Scarlatti, number 6, at a quarter to six in the afternoon. In the adjoining room the 12 magistrates of the court had secluded themselves on the morning of Thursday, December 1, 1983 and did not leave the court until voting, late at night. The ruling on the ‘Rumasa case’ was voted on and drafted on Friday, December 2. Garcia Pelayo, from Zamora and the first president of the TC of democracy, exercised the individual vote or double vote that the law confers on the president in the event of a tie. And after a vote of six against six, the president inclined the majority in favor of confirming, against the appeal of unconstitutionality of the Popular Party, the decree-law of expropriation of the so-called ‘holding’ of the bee. The campaign against Garcia Pelayoa man of medium height with completely white hair was fierce.
-I have received you because you have called me several times. But as you can understand I can’t talk about Rumasa. Maybe one day when time passes, we can talk about it…
He said this while smoking nonstop, with a severe but affable profile. That meeting was enough for me to know that the cross he was carrying for having tipped the scales in favor of the PSOE government would take years to alleviate, if that was ever going to happen, the weight he had been carrying on his back for just over a month. He never got rid of her until he died on February 25, 1991, in Caracas, Venezuela, the country to which he returned. He had gone into exile there after the Spanish civil war.
Will there be someone willing today in the Constitutional Court (TC) to assume similar responsibilities?
It is a TC basically in a state of vegetation. The ruling on the appeal of unconstitutionality of the PP on the abortion law, admitted for processing in 2010 – yes you have read correctly, it is not a typo – already superseded by another law, which the president Pedro Gonzalez-Trevijano promised to take to the Plenary in the month of May-June, prior distribution of the paper inherited by the magistrate Henry Arnoldwas left in the lurch, not to remember that the TC resolved the appeals against the state of alarm once the pandemic was over.
Now there are the amparo appeals against the decision of the president of the Congress of Deputies, Meritxell Batetwho expelled on October 21, 2021 the Canarian deputy Alberto Rodriguez, of the parliamentary group of United We Can, throughout the legislature, and against the Supreme Court ruling that sentenced him to a 45-day disqualification sentence and a fine, from which, presumably, Batet derived his resolution, without giving reasons, for the who lacked authority. The report of the chief prosecutor of the TC says so, Pedro Crespowho affirms that the president went beyond what was requested of her.
A few days ago, according to what EL PERIÓDICO is able to report, the rapporteur magistrate, Mary Louise Balaguerin this resource, so to speak, of parliamentary law, has requested a report from his lawyers on one of the measures that were proposed in it: the precautionary measure of restitution of Alberto Rodriguez to his seat in the Congress of Deputies.
Soon, in October, it will be a year since the expulsion of Rodriguez. And during this time, the rapporteur has not considered resolving the request for the precautionary measure -neither for nor against- because she was convinced that the substance of the matter -whether the protection was granted or denied- could be resolved in the month of September.
Given the state of suspension in the air of the TC pending the dribbles of the most recalcitrant sector of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) aimed at postponing as much as possible the appointments of two magistrates, who puts the bell on the cat of resources of Alberto Rodriguez?
dogmatic criteria
Balaguer He has maintained in interviews these days that the magistrates try to “establish dogmatic criteria about the defense of the Constitution above political intrigues & rdquor ;. But, at the same time, he is aware that “there is a lack of dialogue between the TC and society, and the TC and the media & rdquor ;. And when she is asked what she thinks she can contribute to the institution, if she were elected president, she replies that “the information policy is deficient and that the TC is excessively closed to the citizenry & rdquor ;. And what would you like to change: “Communicative politics and being able to connect with society”.
“That happens if you had resolved the resources on the pandemic during the pandemic and not when it was over. And it was not also made by personal mortgages. Why is nothing resolved now? Because you have a president who is a lame duck and who thinks about his journey through university or banking, I don’t know, and has tiptoed through things, I’ve premiered a play, I’ve done a book about the Museum of Prado and I now in the last 10 minutes I do not get into controversies that will mark my name for life as happened to Manuel Garcia Pelayo. Neither the abortion nor the Alberto Rodrigueznothing is resolved & rdquor ;, points out a highly qualified judicial source to EL PERIÓDICO.
The resources of Rodriguez would require a determined intervention of the president. It is possible that both amparo appeals should be resolved in a single plenary session, because striking down the deputy was -or so it was proposed- as a consequence of a sentence.
Gonzalez-Trevijano, what can you do? roll up ask Balaguer his speech on the parliamentary issue Santiago Martinez-Vares theirs on whether or not the Supreme Court ruling is upheld. And so solve the resources.
The policy of kicking the ball forward seems to lead to getting rid of the dead and practically confirming the de facto expulsion of Rodriguez unresolved resources.
So how does the magistrate intend Balaguer connect with society? Or is it that a part of that society, for example 60,000 Canarian voters who voted for Albert Rodriguez, have not been deprived, with their expulsion, of their rights?
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We must give fewer interviews and offer a response to appeals for protection.
Because otherwise, what is the use of a Constitutional Court that meets to agree on dogmatics?