The 19 members of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) will meet again in extraordinary plenary session to appoint the two substitutes for the magistrates of the Constitutional Court whose mandates have expired on June 12 –Santiago Martinez-Vares Y Juan Antonio Xiol (vice president)- when they have previously agreed on the names of the conservative and progressive candidates. In the session on Thursday the 8th, only the procedure to be followed to make the selection was discussed through a commission formed ad hoc by members of both blocs.
Although the Plenary was convened to comply with the law approved last July and appoint the magistrates, the members received on Wednesday night, as several confirmed to El Periódico, a message from Carlos Lesmes, president of the Supreme Court and the CGPJ, in which he informed them that he would open the session with a procedural proposal so that the members could take their time and reflect on it and debate again. The progressive members also learned that the conservative sector was determined to prevent the appointments from leaving the plenary this Thursday, so that the session would be limited to debating the so-called “procedure & rdquor; & rdquor; of election, without putting the names of the candidates of both blocs on the table.
The progressive members met this Thursday around nine in the morning to analyze what their position was going to be regarding this change, as we anticipated and they decided, above all, to guarantee that the appointments will be carried out. “We had to do our best to stay calm and avoid confrontations. That they wanted to avoid appointments on Thursday, fine. The important thing was not the day but the agreement to do them & rdquor ;, said a progressive member of this newspaper.
With “homework done”
And this despite the fact that this sector, as the source said, had “homework done.” In the past months of July and August, the members maintained contacts and met with magistrates to draw up their list of candidates. In the first days of September they held three meetings.
His list of candidates amounts to five who have given their consent to go to the TC: Jose Manuel Bandres, Angels Huet, paul luke, Edward Spin (members of the Third Contentious-Administrative Chamber), and Jacobo Lopez Barja de Quiroga (President of the Fifth Chamber, of the Military).
Sources consulted point to Judge Bandrés as the one who will first obtain majority support in the progressive sector to be the candidate.
Conservative magistrates apparently do not have a list as defined as that of the progressive sector. But candidates, like the meigas, there are: Francisco Martin Marinpresident of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court; Maria Luisa Segovianopresident of the Fourth Social Chamber; Ines Huertafrom the Third room; Antonio Vicente Semperemagistrate of the Fourth Social Chamber, or Rafael Fernandez Valverdenow retired from the Third Chamber.
This Thursday’s meeting has “went like silk & rdquor ;, according to several members told EL PERIÓDICO. The members of the so-called progressive sector Roser Bach Y Alvaro Cuesta They suggested that the next plenary session be convened for Tuesday, September 13. It is the date that, according to the law approved last July by the Congress of Deputies, the candidates must be elected, the date on which the Government has announced its decision to make the two appointments that correspond to it to replace the expired magistrates Pedro Gonzalez-Trevijano (president) and Antonio Narvaez.
irritation in the room
However, the conservative sector made it clear that it was opposed. The vowel Concepcion Saez He proposed to a vote that the Plenary be summoned on September 13 to give formal content to the negotiation. but the vowel Jose Maria Macias, who took the lead throughout the plenary session, raised his tone of voice, not without some irritation, against the proposal. “I know how to negotiate. I have done it in many areas & rdquor ;, she settled.
That the conservative members would skip the date of the 13th was an open secret. During the meeting, both Cuesta and Macías officiated as representatives of the conservative and progressive blocs. And to face the future negotiation of the names to be chosen, the progressive sector gave its three representatives: Alvaro Cuesta, Roser Bach Y Raphael Young. The conservatives refrained from naming their own because they were not yet ready for it.
The Government no longer needs, according to sources from La Moncloa, to force its hand to fulfill its appointments on September 13thsince those of the CGPJ have been launched.
“We have to see what trick the conservative sector& rdquor ;, says a magistrate consulted. “Although Lesmes no longer seems up to the task, the Conservatives may wish to apply his legacy: apart from appointing a more militant candidate of their own, achieving with his votes that of the progressive sector the magistrate who they consider less dangerous, more decaffeinated & rdquor ;, he warned.
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The progressive sector, if you include Henry Lucasnow has 8 members, after the death of Victory Belt. The conservatives are 10. And this time Lesmes does not play in his field.
Summary: Conservatives aspire, skipping the date of the September 13th, to achieve a small victory. They do not square after Lesmes’ speech to the claim to name their two candidates before or on the same date, kicking the ball for the end of September.