He rejects that the body of judges can delay the appointment of the two judges of the TC that correspond to him due to lack of agreement
“They can’t do politics” nor raise an “opposition” to the Legislative mandate, say government sources
The government is about to close the pending folder of the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the Constitutional Court. With uneven success, but is ready to turn the page. The updating of the governing body of the judges, for which they need an agreement with the PP, he gives it up for lost for the rest of the legislature. La Moncloa understands that this pact is no longer possible and that the PP, despite the initial promises of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has no intention of facilitating it, not even now that he has left the state attorney general, Dolores Delgado, due to health problems.
But he has managed to unblock the appointment of the third of the constitutional Court, who completed his mandate on June 12, of which two magistrates are appointed by the Government and another two by the CGPJ. He has been with a legislative trick that modifies a previous reform to prevent a functioning Judiciary, whose stage has ended, from continuing to make appointments. This, which was designed to put pressure on the PP and force the renewal (unsuccessfully), has now been retouched for the CGPJ if it can appoint the two judges that correspond to it. Without delay, moreover, because it establishes a term that expires on September 13.
This Wednesday the Senate approves, if there are no setbacks, the reform that will allow the CGPJ to appoint the two judges to the TC that it must appoint even if their mandate has expired
This modification now faces the final phase with its final approval, except for last minute surprises, this Wednesday in the Senate. At the return of summer, the new appointments will consolidate a progressive majority TC. For this, precisely, all these changes have been concocted. The Government has absolute confidence that this will be the case and does not see any act of rebellion by the CGPJ as feasible.
Government sources reject contingencies and show all your trust in which the body of judges chooses its quota in the TC in the established time. Because any hint of contempt, they point out, would mean placing oneself in a “position dangerous“. “You can not do politics” or raise an “opposition” to other powers of the State, in this case the Legislative. For this reason, the Executive considers it “sure” that the CGPJ “will comply with the regulations and the institutional framework.”
.@pilar_llop delinks the change of prosecutor with the CGPJ while the PP is suspicious of the new appointment https://t.co/Uykc8u3PaJ pic.twitter.com/cDjKhEvmLH
– Europe Press TV (@europapress_tv) July 19, 2022
Plenum does not mean agreement
The Government thus responded to the information published by ‘El Periódico de España’, from this same editorial group, on the fact that the CGPJ did not guarantee that it could comply before September 13 with the appointment of its quota in the Constitutional Court. The plenary session will be convened, of course, after the holidays, but some members of the Thursday body warned this newspaper that doing so does not in itself mean reaching agreement. There are members who believe that the reform that the Senate will ratify this Wednesday mark a date to start the procedure, but cannot force the achievement of an agreement in a “collegiate body of plural composition”.
If the Judiciary appoints two conservative magistrates, there would be no progressive majority, but a division in the middle of the TC
And, according to the sources consulted, there is also the danger that the conservative sector will be tempted to assert its supremacy (they would only need one more vote to have the required twelve) and appoint two judges for the TC of the same rope. This circumstance does not seem to worry the Executive either but, if it happens, it would end its claim to achieve a progressive Constitutional. It would no longer be seven magistrates from this block against five conservatives that the Government longs for, but a court broken in two halves of six magistrates, which would require the quality vote of the new president chosen to break ties.
The Government says that Dolores Delgado’s resignation is due “exclusively to health problems” and values her “responsibility” for leaving office by not being able to assume “absolute dedication”: “She has a broken back” https://t.co/tBFkloKb07 pic.twitter.com/ExYJHyl23y
— Europe Press (@europapress) July 19, 2022
Conversations “from scratch”
The Executive does not put itself in this position despite the fact that the president of the CGPJ himself, Carlos Lesmes, publicly alluded to the difficulty involved in reaching a consensus even if there is a set deadline. In Moncloa they were clear from the beginning that they would accelerate the arrival of a progressive TC if the PP did not comply with the renewal commitment given the conviction that there would be a change of majority.
Related news
They even defend that they spoke with the previous leadership of the PP —the reform of the reform— to safeguard the Constitutional if before the next renewal (which was due in June), they had not yet managed to unblock the CGPJ. In Genoa, Feijóo’s team replies that they warned from the beginning that the talks they started “from scratch”.
So from scratch that in the end they have been impossible. A communication error frustrated the negotiations. The PP hinted that it would still take a month, after the Andalusians, to sit down and talk. The reality is that he intended to do it the following week. But that new delay (the CGPJ has been expired for three and a half years) unnerved the government that unilaterally proposed the reform to save the TC, which now the judges’ own body threatens.