The acting president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Rafael Mozo, convenes this Monday, December 12 an extraordinary plenary session for next Wednesday the 14th in response to the request for nine members of the conservative sector, last Friday, to elect the two magistrates of the Constitutional Court (TC), choice that they themselves have been blocking since last September 13.
Mozo will first listen this Monday to the members in different meetings at the headquarters of the Madrid street of Marqués de la Ensenada. But, according to sources consulted by EL PERIÓDICO, his decision is respectful of the regulations of the CGPJ -when five members request it, the plenary session must be convened- and, although there is already an ordinary plenary session on December 22 in which the two magistrates were to be elected, the extraordinary plenary session will be cited this Wednesday the 14th.
Mozo, then, will have adopted the opposite position to that of his counterpart, the expired president of the Constitutional, Pedro González-Trevijanowho on November 30 failed to comply with the internal regulation when three magistrates asked him to convene a plenary session to verify Juan Carlos Campo and Laura Díezappointments made by the Government in the TC. Gonzalez-Trevijanowhose mandate expired on June 12, refuses to leave the court of guarantees and coordinates, in turn, with the conservative sector of the CGPJ.
“We have already seen that the regulations were not complied with in the TC. But this cannot be our institutional reference,” a source close to the progressive members of the CGPJ told this newspaper.
The conservative triangle
If the triangle is the ancestral symbol of the Holy Christian Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now, in Spain constitutionally hit with the support of the Popular Party that presides Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, This triangle bears the respective initials at each of the three points: the PP at the vertex, and at each of the other two that form the base are the conservative sectors of the CGPJ and the Constitutional Court.
#Feijóo A confession of part – coup – relay of evidence Feijóo & Alsina on Onda Cero https://t.co/dHCpy1uEYU
— Ernesto Ekaizer (@ErnestoEkaizer) December 9, 2022
Not always, everything must be said, the instructions come from the top, no. But its adaptation/assimilation to pressures is essential to maintain the triangle structure.
The conservative and progressive sectors approved on September 8, with the support of the then president Carlos Lemes a regulation to elect the two corresponding magistrates in the TC, as if this GGPJ had not been making appointments after December 4, 2013 -the members have been in their posts for nine years and were elected for five-, but the right of the The Judiciary skipped the legal deadline of September 13 provided by the Organic Law of July 27, 2022.
The reasons given: disinterest in going to the TC of the magistrates of the Supreme Court -where those who are traditionally elected by the CGPJ come from- and, in addition, personal jurisdictional commitments of some members who are magistrates to hold negotiation meetings.
The progressive sector presented five candidates. But the conservatives, without presenting any – as they argued no one was interested – objected: why didn’t the progressives meet and decide on a single candidate to make things easier?
Well that’s what they did: Judge Juan Manuel Bandrés was appointed candidate, of the Third Chamber, of the Contentious-Administrative of the Supreme Court. Meets all the professional requirements agreed in the regulations.
But the conservatives said that, although there are no reasons for a veto, they suggested, directly or indirectly, that one of the initial list of five progressives be resurrected: the magistrate Paul Lucasalso from the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court.
Lucas, as a CGPJ member who prefers to keep his name confidential says, is a tolerant and civilized person; and it is true that he is not part of the disciplined recalcitrant right, but from there to him being a progressive there is a considerable distance.
block choice
The fact is that the progressive sector reaffirmed Bandrés’ candidacy several times without the conservative putting his “own” candidate on the negotiating table, apart from the preference for Lucas. For example, a Pablo Llarena.
It was evident, then, that the PP and the conservative sector of the CGPJ -10 members since the defection of Lesmes- they were using consecutive pretexts to block the election of the two magistrates.
This and the refusal of González-Trevijano to call the plenary session of verification or placet for the two magistrates proposed by the Government, led the Executive to promote a legal reform aimed at deactivating the blockades when it comes to deliberate maneuvers that obstruct the renewal in time of the constitutional bodies.
To this end, when said “delays” occur, a change from the current reinforced majority of 3/5 (11 members in the CGPJ) to a simple majority and that each of the members propose a single candidate. This guarantees that a magistrate for the conservative sector and another for the progressive would be elected, and obstructionist behaviors are criminally classified.
The reform also enables the magistrates of the TC to be elected by sixths instead of thirds, to prevent, as is the case now, the conservative sector of the TC from relying on the pretext that the CGPJ has not appointed its two magistrates to ignore those designated by the Government.
rebellion crusade
Delays in the election of TC magistrates have occurred in the past due to delays in negotiations over candidates for Congress or the Senate. But never in the case of the magistrates appointed by the Government who, along with those appointed by the CGPJ, were submitted to the Plenary for verification.
Mariano Rajoy He appointed his two candidates in 2013, a year and a half after arriving at La Moncloa. And Pedro Sánchez has appointed the Government magistrates two years and eleven months after taking over the reins.
It is the Constitution that establishes that changes in the social majority must be reflected in the TC.
But the gravity of what is happening is this: the Holy Trinity precisely resists recognizing that social majority and its reflection in the TC to the government of Pedro Sanchez, against which de facto has launched a crusade of rebellion.
The coup leaders of that Santísima Trinidad denounce the reforms adopted by the Government to defend itself against non-compliance with the law, omitting, through the media PP-backed media-judicial unionthe context of the same, as if they were lightning in a serene sky caused by the social-communist-filoterrerrorist dictatorship that governs Spain.
The conservative sector of the CGPJ, led by the vocal José María Macíaspartner of the Cuatrecasas law firm, urgently abandoned his strategy of continued delay on Friday to demand, in view of the aforementioned legal reforms promoted by the Government, the calling of the extraordinary plenary session.
What is he aiming for now? First. it would be a matter of staging the front against the measures promoted by the Government. But what about the magistrates to choose? Among the hypotheses being considered is that of try to muster the 11 votes needed to force two conservative candidates instead of one conservative and one progressive.
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But there have been nine members who have requested the extraordinary plenary session. A conservative vocal, Vincent Guilarteas is his norm, he has not joined and seems to be going it alone, favoring, above all, that his friend be chosen Francisco Marin Castanpresident of the First Chamber of the Supreme Court and president of the Supreme Court since the resignation of Lesmes.
Carrying out an objective of getting two conservative magistrates for the TC in the CGPJ would require 11 votes. The right, then, would need to divide the progressive group and fish -if Guilarte is counted closing ranks- a vote in those waters to achieve the necessary 11.