The negotiations between the head of the Popular Party, Esteban Gonzalez Ponsinstitutional deputy general secretary of the party, and Felix Bolanos, Minister of the Presidency, have consolidated this Monday the progress that made an agreement foreseen in the blink of an eye or the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) never counted. According to sources close to those contacts, the pact could be reached this weekgiven that names have also been considered – the most delicate ‘top secret’ issue of the agreement – for the possible presidency of the new CGPJ.
“It has been a McGuffin that most of the press has swallowed,” said a judicial source consulted on Monday.
McGuffin? It refers to the resource used by the famous director Alfred Hitchcock in his cinema, an element that allowed the suspense of the plot to advance but generally lacked any relevance.
But what is it?
“It is a device to hunt lions in Scotland”
“But in Scotland there are no lions”
“So that’s not a McGuffin over there.”
The source consulted refers to how the media bought that United We Canwith its demand to place the judge on leave of absence and current Government delegate for Gender Violence, Victoria Rosellwas blowing up the negotiation, something that was also attributed to the candidacy of the magistrate of the Criminal Chamber of the National High Court, Jose Ricardo de Prada.
The candidacies of both were left out of the game in 2018. And at no time during the ongoing negotiation, according to the sources consulted, were they stones in the way of the agreement. Another thing is that United We Can publicly raise the idea, more as a testimonial claim than as a concrete proposal.
The names
The progress in the negotiations has also made it possible to address some names for a consensus presidency, names that are kept in the strictest confidence. It has only been possible to know that some of them could be “surprising”. There is no “dip” yet to find the right personality. Always, if there is an agreement, it would be a recommendation to the new members so that they are the ones who resolve, trying to avoid the serious mistake made in November 2018, when the PP of Paul Married and the Government, through the then Vice President Carmen Baldpublicly admitted that the then president of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, Manuel Marchenawas the chosen person, which led to an explosion of the candidacy.
Socialist sources maintain the desire that she be a president. “We would have saved what is not written if in 2013 the magistrate Pilar Tesso I would have been elected,” said a source consulted.
In December 2013, the then general secretary of the PSOE, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, gave its support to Mariano Rajoy in the candidacy of Carlos Lesmes, who received 16 votes. But four members of the progressive group stood out and supported the magistrate of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court, Pilar Tesso.
Today, nine years later, the magistrate is still a candidate to preside over the CGPJ.
The negotiation
Another of the PP’s ideas, that of designing a “zone of influence” for the Government and the PP, taking into account the Constitutional Court (TC) and the CGPJ on the map, according to the sources consulted, will not prosper.
The Government considers that precisely if the PP proposes depoliticization -namely, that candidates like Victoria Rosell, for example, they should not be admitted to the new CGPJ because they come from the governmental area or by linking a candidate to a political party – should take into account that what happens in the TC with the renewal of four magistrates whose mandate has expired on June 12 only concerns the TC.
Likewise, the Government does not admit discussing the next majority in the TC or the election of the person who will occupy the presidency once the four new magistrates take office.
Yes, an agreement has been reached so that the conservative magistrate Alfred Montoya, who resigned last summer due to illness, must be elected by the Senate and replaced by another conservative magistrate. With the necessary votes from the PSOE, which controls the majority of the upper house.
A magistrate of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court is contemplated for said substitution, as anticipated by the digital Informed Sources, Julian Sanchez Melgar, former State Attorney General in the Rajoy government. The magistrate has neither confirmed nor denied this possibility. “We’ll see”, he has limited himself to saying consulted by EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA last week.
Related news
Regarding the future system of election of the members of the CGPJ, the renewal is done with the current legislation as demanded by the resigned president on September 7, 2022 in his opening speech of the year of the courts, the new CGPJ will form a commission, as proposed by the PP last July, to evaluate the current mixed system and propose the appropriate modifications in six months. However, given the proximity of the general elections -end of 2023 or January 2024- this proposal will finally be managed by whoever governs after those results.
In accordance with the modification of the Organic Law of the Judiciary approved at the initiative of the Government of Pedro Sanchez In December 2018, the appointments of magistrates of the Supreme Court, Superior Courts of Justice and, now at the proposal of the PP of provincial courts, must be made by reinforced majority, of 3/5 in the new CGPJ. This criterion, established by law, has already been applied since December 2018, which annulled the roller started by Lesmes in 2013, who in turn approved the appointments by simple majority.