The Government takes advantage of the ‘Guilarte plan’ to renew the Judiciary after the electoral cycle, by Ernesto Ekaizer

And in the art of negotiating with a PP who was about to get the presidency of the Supreme Court and General Council of the Judiciary in November 2018 – both the PSOE like the PP agreed on the name of the everlasting president of the Second Chamber, Manuel Marchenaa frustrated pact – and which has since argued that only if there is a change in the election system will it support the renewal of a body whose blockade lasts five years –Carlos Lesmeswho resigned in October 2022, was elected on December 9, 2013–, Bolaños has already had a long time to exercise his negotiating wrist.

It shows, of course.

Now the Government, through Bolaños, has taken to flight a “third way” of renewal launched –apparently neither PSOE nor PP– by Vicente Guilarte, a man who came to the CGPJ at the proposal of the PP in 2013 – he enjoys an excellent relationship with Enrique Rajoy, registrar and brother of Mariano Rajoy – to suggest to Núñez Feijóo that the renewal can be widely examined. Get to work. Another initiative, but with the hook of the ‘Guilarte plan’, which President Pedro Sánchez is going to put on the table for his next meeting with the president of the PP.

Without hope

Official Government sources have no illusions about a renewal in the next six months, more precisely, before the summer of 2024. The calendar of the parliamentary debate —amnesty law— and the electoral cycle — Galician, Basque and European — makes it difficult to take a photo with the signed Feijóo-Sánchez pact before this cycle ends. The horizon is, therefore, September 2024. But in view of experience, it is necessary to resume negotiations as soon as possible.

Vicente Guilarte has always been considered, although proposed by the PP as a member, a loose verse within the CGPJ. In recent weeks she has distanced herself again – with more intensity than other times – from the man who feels in control within the conservative group: the partner of the powerful law firm Cuatrecasas José María Macías.

In the sequence of Guilarte’s departure, one can highlight his position on November 6 in the face of the cannon shot in the form of an institutional declaration imposed by nine conservative members against five. Guilarte voted blank.

Three days later, on November 9, the conservative sector promoted the proposal in the Permanent Commission of the CGPJ to reject the suitability of Álvaro García Ortiz as Attorney General of the State – the first time, in July 2022, he had accepted it – – through a unprecedented report if the reports issued previously are consulted, whether in the case of attorneys general of the PP or the PSOE.

Blank vote

The eight recalcitrants reproached García Ortiz not for the lack of requirements – that is what the report should consist of – but for, for example, not having spoken out against the amnesty, a proposition that will begin to be debated in Congress next Tuesday, and in other matters of a political-judicial nature.

Guilarte stood out again. But this time he did not limit himself to that, as the blank vote which aired on November 6. He announced that he would present a private vote alongside the progressive group, led this time by Roser Bach, signatory of the vote along with other members. Look at where, as in this case, he broke away from the recalcitrant sector Juan Martínez Moyathe vote came out 8 conservatives against 7. If the vowel Concepcion Saez Had he been present – he resigned in protest at the end of March 2023 – the vote would have ended in a tie, which with Guilarte’s casting vote would have thwarted the negative report.

This second wasn’t the charm. It has not emerged, but EL PERIÓDICO has learned that the intention of the sector of the Permanent Commission promoted by Macías – Carmen Llombart and José Antonio Ballestero – to issue a particularly forceful and extensive statement against the references to the ‘lawfare‘ (use of justice and procedures for political, extrajudicial purposes), the agreement signed by the PSOE and Junts, Guilarte joined the progressive sector to make a low intensity statement. He supported her but contributed to weakening her. For the irritation, as reliable sources have confided to this newspaper, from Macías.

Finally, by presenting the idea of ​​renewing the CGPJ through an alternative, Guilarte has further distanced himself from the conservative sector.

In reality, his initiative – to remove from the CGPJ the power conferred on it by the Constitution to make the appointments of judges and magistrates, and also the two that make up the Constitutional Court – has distanced itself from both the PP and the judicial associations – for example, the conservative Professional Association of the Judiciary (APM)–, who want not less but more power for a CGPJ where the judges directly elect the 12 members from the judiciary.

Promote debate

Although socialist sources consider this idea unfeasible, the initiative seems to favor a debate on renewal and they point out that we must be open to making some innovation in a future law that should, precisely, be agreed upon by the PSOE and the PP.

But, speaking in plain English, which CGPJ election law applies now, the PSOE law of 1985, as the PP usually says on the fly, or the PP laws?

Because, strictly speaking, what the PP has blocked since 2018 is not only the Constitution… but its own law.

How is that?

The law that he does not want to apply is “his” law, it is the organic law of 2013, when it was modified by the Minister of Justice Alberto Ruiz-Gallardónwith the absolute majority obtained by Mariano Rajoy in 2011.

The first system applied with democracy was the pure corporate system, agreed upon by the president Adolfo Suarez With the Francoist judicial leadership, it was the judges who chose the members. The pure parliamentary system was approved by the PSOE in 1985, according to which the parliament freely chose among all the judges it wanted. Was José María Azanar who with his absolute majority in 2000 established a mixed system: election by the judges (associations) of shortlists of candidates that Parliament, in turn, legislatively consecrates.

Saying mixed system It was corrected by Gallardón in 2013. In addition to the name proposals by the judicial associations, greater flexibility was introduced, liberalizing the system. Now a non-associated judge can appear on his own if he presents the required endorsements, although the associations’ directives continue to dictate a lot.

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In summary: the recalcitrant sector and Feijóo-González Pons are facing a gap on their internal front. They already suffered it in December with the in extremis renewal in the Constitutional Court.

And, now, Bolaños exercises his wrist.