Sixty-eight days… of resistance by the conservative members of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) against 337 of the last Spanish soldiers who defended their position in the archipelago of Philippines, in the Pacific, even when the war was over. That was the disaster of 98, the last breath of the Spanish empire. There in the United States the press tycoon incited the war William Randolph Hearst; and here, in the face of what they see as the fall of the judicial empire – the dominance of the right over its traditional fiefdom – some call for “resistance” against those who assault the judiciary. A Government that has not achieved in four years the renewal of the CGPJ and that has spent 68 days without appointing two magistrates that it must appoint to replace those it appointed Mariano Rajoy in 2013, expired on June 12, 2022, is, according to the media right that emulates Hearst, the assailant.
On July 20, the Senate approved the law that allows this CGPJ to make the appointments of the other two magistrates expired on June 12 really existing. In this way, both the Government and the CGPJ would fill the four vacancies in the Constitutional Court (TC).
The President of the Supreme Court, Carlos Lesmes, announced, in a huddle at the opening ceremony of the judicial year, on September 7, that he planned to resign if the appointments were not made in the TC, that is, to comply with the law. The next day, Thursday the 8th, the conservative sector that dominates the CGPJ agreed to make them, but got into a long meeting about the “regulations” for these appointments, when it was very simple: appoint a conservative and a progressive magistrate.
Visit of the Justice Commissioner
The members proceeded in said conclave to name a negotiating commission but the conservatives could not give the names of their own. Setting a meeting date, the Conservatives said they had no agenda to agree on a meeting. After a non-face-to-face contact, they postponed a new meeting for a week, this time face to face. And in it they said that they had no names of candidates, that no one from the Supreme Court was interested in going to the TC. In any case, it would be, they let it be known, impossible to make the appointments in the remainder of September. Added to these excuses was the fact that the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynderswill visit Madrid on September 29 and 30, which, it was suggested, was the time to address the renewal of the CGPJ.
Problem: it is no longer possible to negotiate the renewal of the CGPJ if the appointments are not made in the TC. Because it is this CGPJ in an extension situation that has to do them since last July 20. And not only the CGPJ, as has been noted. The Government must also appoint two magistrates and is waiting to do so – given that on September 8 there was a commitment in the CGPJ to comply with the law – together with the CGPJ so that the four new magistrates take office jointly, given that the current expired president of the TC, Pedro Gonzalez-Trevijanohas (illegally) threatened the Government and the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llopto deny them possession if all four are not elected.
The conservative sector, which has 10 members, plus the president, is not solid. Four members (Vicente Guilarte, Nuria Abad, Juan Martínez Moya and Wenceslao Olea) have recently distanced themselves (refusal to give the green light to the new State Attorney General. Alvaro Garcia, as suitable; condemnation of the member Pilar Sepúlveda for supporting with her signature the pardon a Jose Antonio Grinan). And besides, the president no longer follows them in their “Filipino” resistance.
moral victory
But the recalcitrant sector does not have a PP to stop it.
Lesmes allowed this group, whose singing voice in the extraordinary plenary session on September 8 was his former right-hand man, José María Macías, to disobey the legislator and make the appointments after September 13. So he gave her a moral victory to save face.
But given that the recalcitrant sector threatens, as in a poker game, to take the bluff to the end, Lesmes wants to put the names of candidates in the ordinary plenary session on Thursday, September 29, and call an extraordinary plenary session on October 3. for vote. And he warns that he has the four magistrates who have separated from the recalcitrant sector.
However, Lesmes has tried not to join the conservative sector and Alberto Nuñez Feijoo definitely against. For this reason, by stating that he will resign if the appointments of the TC are not finalized on October 3, at the same time he has stolen from the members of the CGPJ the decision of who will be the successor of Lesmes in the event that he, indeed, resigns. For this, he has appointed the oldest president of the Supreme Court, based on a report commissioned from his lawyers, to head the Supreme Court and the CGPJ. His name is Francisco Marin Castan.
the last trap
Is there any precedent that influenced this “technical” report?
Well, if the succession had influenced it, it should have been different.
Because in June 2012, the president of the Supreme Court and CGPJ, Carlos Divarresigned from his position and was replaced in the CGPJ by the vice-president of the CGPJ (that position existed at that time), Ferdinand de Rosaand in the presidency of the Supreme by the magistrate of the First Chamber, Juan Antonio Xiol.
Now, on the other hand, it turns out that the presidency of the TS and the CGPJ is inseparable.
When he arrived at the TS and CGPJ, Lesmes created the position of vice president of the TS and CGPJ. A typical maneuver of someone who was already outlining himself as a tsar. He chose a progressive person not because he was, but because he was his friend and thus killed two birds with one stone. A role of tsar that he now confirms by choosing his successor. But the vice president Angel Juanesretired in October 2019. And although the CGPJ could replace him – then he was not prohibited from making appointments – he decided that the new CGPJ make the appointment for five years as soon as it was renewed.
Why now Lesmes has not repeated the designation of successor as was done in 2012 with Dívar and affirms that the presidency of the TS and CGPJ cannot be split?
It’s simple: because if the same concept is applied – oldest presiding magistrate in the Supreme Court – in the CGPJ the oldest member is Rafael Mozo. And what is the problem? Well, he’s progressive.
However, what squeaks is the argument of the most recalcitrant sector led by Macías: we have no candidates.
“Conservative Science”
But hasn’t Enrique López declared that the PP has the support of the majority of the judicial career? Or Pedro González-Trevijano, when he declared that “almost all judges are conservative because law is a conservative science.”
“It’s not about merits Y ability. And here the Professional Association of the Judiciary (APM) does not want, for example, the conservatives Francisco Marín Castán or Diego Córdoba because they are from the Francisco de Vitoria association. The PP wants ‘one of ours’, which is equivalent to saying the APM,” a judicial source told this newspaper.
Related news
It seems that in this poker game there are covered. Lesmes has his cover. Here the one who asks to go to the TC does not appear in the photo.
Entrenched in the CGPJ after the war is over because the Government has given them back the ability to make appointments in the TC, the members of the recalcitrant sector have made their cape a coat.