Alberto Nuñez Feijoo left an indelible trace of his true intentions before announcing his Copernican turn towards breaking up the joint renewal agreement of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the appointment of magistrates in the constitutional Court on October 27 under the pretext of the future reform of the crime of sedition. Three days before, on October 24, as confirmed by EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA, the PP presented in the register of entries of the Constitutional Court a new appeal of unconstitutionality against the reform of the law approved on July 27, 2022 that returned to the Judiciary the power to appoint magistrates in the TC.
That is to say: the PP resorted to that law precisely when it promised to sign the agreement by which compliance with that law meant for the CGPJ to make the two appointments that correspond to it in the TC.
That double game of the PP is symmetrical to the one he is managing Jose Maria Maciasthe leader of the conservative sector and negotiator with the progressive group to appoint the substitutes for the two magistrates of the TC –Santiago Martinez-Vares Y Juan Antonio Xiol– whose mandate expired on June 12.
That strategy was put into practice when on September 7 Carlos Lesmespresident of the Supreme Court and CGPJ, warned in the corridors of the opening ceremony of the courts that he was preparing to resign if the appointments were not made (the legal date to do so was September 13) and the CGPJ was renewed, whose mandate expired on December 4, 2018, now four years ago.
As can be read in the minutes of the meeting of the CGPJ on September 8, to which EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA has had access, when addressing the negotiation, one of the members of the progressive group raised, Concha Saezthe need to set a deadline for the negotiation of the appointments (see reproduction), given that the conservative sector said they were not in a position to give the name of their negotiators in front of Rafael Mozo, Roser Bach and Álvaro Cuestaappointed by the progressive group. The matter is to appoint the two magistrates on September 13.
“José María Macías Castaño recognizes the difficulty of feeling concerned about the deadline [13 de septiembre] when the Government and the legislature do not meet the deadlines that correspond to them. He understands that there is a certain deadline and that if we can meet it, it’s fine and if we can’t do it, it’s fine too.” Later, the minutes refer to Sáez’s intervention.
“Maria Concepcion Saez Rodriguez considers that if we do not set a date for the appointment [de negociadores por ampos sectores conservador y progresista] we are working in the air, so he proposes that this plenary come out with the commitment to carry out an agreement before the next day 13 [fecha legal establecida por la ley de 27 de julio de 2022], for which purpose that date must be set as the date for the next plenary session, whether or not there is agreement on that date. We have to show the citizens and the judicial group that we are working and making an effort to reach an agreement before the end of the 13th & rdquor ;.
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Jose Maria Macias Castano agrees to use its best efforts to find a solution. But for this they have to choose interlocutors and ensure that the necessary mechanisms for this purpose are articulated in a short time.
Two months later, the conservative sector continues to find excuses to postpone these appointments ‘sine die’. Macías, in his double game, has embarked these days towards direct media pressure on the president of the Constitutional Court, Pedro Gonzalez-Trevijanowhose mandate has expired, whom he has thinly accused of abandonment because the TC remains unsolvedThe resources of the PP and Vox against the organic law of 2021 by which the current CGPJ in office was prohibited from making appointments. Some resources that, according to judicial sources consulted by this newspaper, have the number 49 in the order of registration entry.
The influence of González-Trevijano
The influence over González-Trevijano reaches such a point that the president has felt ‘touché’ in the face of Macías’s statements and has replied with a note in which he justifies that the TC does not want to interfere in the negotiation of the renewal of the CGPJ. Can you imagine the president of the TC answering about each resource as a result of a protest channeled through the media? But he understands: if Macías puts you on the target, as happened when he broke up with Lesmes because he was pressing for appointments, you have to be careful.
Next Tuesday, the Plenary of the TC will admit for processing the new appeal of unconstitutionality presented by the PP, as has been pointed out, on October 24, against the reform that allows the CGPJ to now appoint the two magistrates of the TC. As is the norm, resources with parliamentary content are usually admitted for processing due to their constitutional importance, although the substance will be seen later. The appeal questions the procedure adopted -proposal of law- and the procedure -urgency-, at the same time that it qualifies it as a unique law.
The PP of Pablo Casado appealed the 2021 law that prohibited appointments to the acting CGPJ. Now the PP of Feijóo challenges the 2022 law that returns the partial power to make appointments, in this case, in the TC, given that it is the Constitution that establishes this prerogative and an organic law, that is, of lower rank, the one that prohibited them.
What is this contradiction due to? If one of the faculties has already been returned to you, why don’t you exercise it even if you ask for the others?
“It is that the PP uses the TC as a third chamber in which to turn, with its conservative majority, the laws approved by Congress, since it cannot prevent it there due to its minority position,” says a judicial source consulted.
Precisely for this reason, it is about blocking with pretexts and occurrences the change of majority in the TC after nine years and five months of conservative roller and server of blows to the Government. Block and delay as much as possible the appointments in the TC, given that Spain has entered the long electoral straight of the municipal, regional elections, and the icing on the cake, the general ones, when Pedro Sánchez so communicates it. It is a final stretch in which Feijóo needs the help of new political setbacks and its amplification through the media terminals that support it.
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The Government has armed itself with patience and continues without appointing the two magistrates to replace those appointed by the government of Mariano Rajoy in 2013 (González-Trevijano and Antonio Narváez, the latter replacing the resigned Enrique López).
But he can’t go on, he too, breaching the Constitution.