Sánchez and Feijóo focus on renewing the CGPJ nine years after Rajoy and Rubalcaba

The President of the Government and Secretary General of the PSOE, Pedro Sanchezand the new leader of the PP, Alberto Nunez Feijooare dedicated from their meeting this Thursday, April 7, to a renewal blocked by the PP since its expiration, on December 4, 2018, now 3 years and four months ago.

Enter your readiness to seal state pacts announced by Feijóo does not appear by his last name that of the Judicial Power. But all the sources consulted take it for granted that there is no doubt that if one has to start with a state pact, it is with the CGPJ, whose paralysis is a blatant demonstration of the constitutional abnormality of Spanish political life. An abnormality that has been used as a throwing weapon in the partisan contest.

“The idea is that the meeting in La Moncloa will kick off the negotiations between Sánchez and Feijóo and that in the month of May we have the new members meeting to elect the new president of the General Council of the Judiciary”, a source from the progressive sector of the judiciary told EL PERIÓDICO yesterday.

Although Feijóo has not spoken of the renewal of the CGPJhas alluded to the crisis that exists in the supreme court with 20% of vacancies in this judicial body. And there will be in the constitutional Court in the next two months – in the month of June – because four new magistrates will have to be appointed to replace a fifth due to illness.

“The first thing that Feijóo has to carry out is the renewal of constitutional bodies. Because it’s a commodity that sucks. Because it’s three years and four months, yes. But it is more serious. It is the CGPJ of 2013. It is that it is said soon: it is almost nine years. Who does it represent? And I don’t think the TC tolerates what has happened in the CGPJ & rdquor ;, says a magistrate attached to the conservative sector.

Because the choice of magistrates of the TC could be resolved without renewing the CGPJ. Two magistrates are chosen by the Government and another two by the CGPJ.

With those appointed by the Government there is no problem. But the organic law of 2021urged by the government majority, prohibits the expired CGPJ from making appointments.

And the TC has to rule on two appeals of unconstitutionality against her, one from the PP and another from the far-right Vox party. And the TC could partially admit those resources and declare that a law cannot be above the Constitution, which requires the renewal of its organs in time.

And, therefore, the CGPJ would be authorized to appoint the two candidates which corresponds to it.

But why resort to this last resort if it is possible to renew now – before expiration of mandates in the TC – the CGPJ and normalize the situation?

The blocking strategy has caused a precariousness in the composition of the rooms. “Can not be. It is that a bad one is put in the Contentious Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court and we have to suspend the deliberations. And there are the Superior Courts of Justice, whose mandates have been extended. Only in the Supreme Court, as the Government Chamber had repeatedly warned, a thousand less sentences will be handed down per year. Now we have a council whose members look at the newspaper every day and look for the news: we are going to last another month or not & rdquor ;, says another source consulted.

The PSOE-PP negotiations that ran aground to renew the CGPJ were played by two sides. On the one hand, the Minister of Justice, John Charles Fieldmaintained a channel of communication –for the knowledge between both– with Henry LopezSecretary of Justice and Public Administrations of the PP since January 2020. On the other, the Secretary General of the PP, Teodoro Garcia Egeaoutlined the pact with Felix BolanosGeneral Secretary of the Presidency of the First Government and Minister of the Presidency, since July 2021.

What will happen with Henry Lopez? For now, after making himself available to Feijóo and estimating last Thursday, March 31, that the appointment of Cuca Gamarra As general secretary of the PP he was “in the right direction & rdquor ;, Enrique López does not appear in Feijóo’s appointments. For the Rights and Guarantees Committee, he has appointed Jose Antonio Monago.

Some sources consulted indicate that the new leader of the PP may need López precisely because of his presence in the negotiations for the renewal of the CGPJ during the Married-Aegean stage. But according to others consulted by EL PERIÓDICO, López’s situation is – at least publicly – pending definition.

“Feijóo has a group of people with whom he consults on justice issues. With some directly and with others indirectly. Is it so Manuel Almenarpresides over the first section of the Provincial Court of Pontevedra, has been president of the Professional Association of the Judiciary (APM) since 2015 and aspires to a position in the First Chamber of the Supreme Court, or Jose Maria Gomez y Diaz-Castroverdepresident of the High Court of Justice of Galicia, or Jose Antonio Ballestero, magistrate of the civil and criminal chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Galicia and member of the current CGPJ. And not last and least important is also Alfonso Rueda, Vice President of the Xunta de Galicia who will probably succeed Feijóo and who has been Minister of the Presidency and Justice of the Xunta. All this shows that Feijóo does not lack advisers or personalities with whom to exchange opinions in the judicial world & rdquor ;, says another source.

Feijóo will also have to “purify & rdquor; the vowel list that his predecessors in the leadership of the PP had presented in the negotiations with the PSOE, which may also give rise to some changes in those proposed by the Socialists, perhaps incorporating some names of United We Can that they “fell” from one of the various lists negotiated by popular voter vetoes.

And it will be necessary to negotiate who will preside over the new CGPJ. At this point, political sources assure that although the name will be agreed upon with a list of three, the members will be given a certain margin to vote. The experience will not be repeated. Carlos Divarwhose name was known before the election in Congress of the members, nor that of Manuel Marchenaagreed by PSOE and PP in 2018 before the members were elected and whose presidency was frustrated by a WhatsApp sent by the PP spokesman in the Senate Ignacio Cosido in which he was exultant with giving up the majority to the PSOE because the president would more than compensate for that numerical advantage.

However, this margin in the election of the president also took place in 2013. “Rajoy and Rubalcaba agreed on the name of Carlos Lesmes. But it was not known until the last minute. Lesmes, Marchena and Gonzalo Moliner. The vocals did not know. When they took possession of the Palacio de la Zarzuela, John Charles I, on crutches, pushed the minister away Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon and asked in a huddle: “Who will be president?” We didn’t know. And besides, Rubalcaba didn’t say it clearly either. He gave us a key: the name of the consensus candidate will come out of the lips of the youngest member in the council meeting, who is the one who has the turn to speak first, “recalled a member from 2013.