The right wants to name its own candidate for the TC and its preferred “progressive” in the CGPJ, by Ernesto Ekaizer

The pressure, therefore, is now concentrated on the conservative sector, whose members were elected in 2013 -eleven years ago, reflecting the absolute majority of the government of Mariano Rajoy!-, and they have executed the order of the PP to block renewal from December 2018 -they will be ten years old in 2023 when they were appointed for five!- before the ordinary monthly plenary session, scheduled for December 22. Although the agenda is drawn up on the Friday before each plenary session, in this case on Friday the 16th, judicial sources consulted assure that the president Rafael Mozo was already thinking of proposing the point of appointments.

“Pro-Government”

The conservative group has remained firm since last September 8 in his refusal to propose candidates. The progressive sector initially proposed five. The conservative, zero. But from the beginning this sector imposed the rule to the contrary and finally got the progressives to reduce their candidate, after voting internally, to one: the magistrate of the Third Chamber (of Administrative Litigation) of the Supreme Court, Jose Manuel Bandres. When the formal proposal of the progressive group learned his name, a few weeks ago, the conservative group began to attack the figure of the magistrate, calling him “pro-government & rdquor ;.

And last Wednesday, when the spokesman for the progressive sector, Alvaro Cuestahe told his counterpart Jose Antonio Ballestero which was still the only proposal, the meeting did not exceed five minutes. Ballestero asked him to check again. On Thursday, Cuesta and his group ratified: Bandrés. Next, this Friday, December 2, Ballestero messaged his colleagues: “In these circumstances, in plenary session on the 22nd, the proposals that each member deems appropriate will be made and each one will vote for the candidates they deem appropriate, without prior consensus on the suitability and opportunity of the proposed candidates & rdquor ;.

“It seems that for the conservatives it is something unacceptable, and that they have not put any candidate on the table. They want to save face and blame us for the lack of consensus,” he told EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA Alvaro Cuesta.

The CGPJ historically elects magistrates of the Supreme Court for the TC. And for more detail to the magistrates of the Third Chamber, the West Point of the magistracy, as he used to call it Carlos Lemes, of that same specialty, for whom criminal law has always been a minor branch. It is assumed, therefore, that the “suitability and opportunity & rdquor; is directly associated with the name of the candidate.

What is the message if Ballestero had to put it in a Romance, for example, in the language of the then PP spokesman in the Senate? ignacio sewn when he explained to his group that it was great to put Manuel Marchenapresident of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, in the presidency of the CGPJ, on November 18, 2018, because it meant controlling “the Second Chamber from behind”?

That there will be no way to choose the two candidates with that voting system?

11 votes are needed now to push the candidates forward, after Lesmes threw in the towel.

The conservatives have 10. Therefore, they would have to fish for 1 in the progressive sector, which adds up to 8 if the member Enrique Lucas, appointed by the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).

As in the original list of five presented by the progressive group was the magistrate Paul Lucasof the Third Chamber, responsible for handling telephone interventions and home entrances by the National Intelligence Center (CNI) from 2009 to 2024, Ballestero and his colleagues hatched a plan. Why, apart from the right-wing candidate, is the candidate Lucas not chosen by the progressives?

In other words, we choose an “own & rdquor; and our “favorite” progressive.

The master of this system was Lesmes. He did it in style when he created the position of vice president of the Supreme Court and put a magistrate from the progressive sector there-Angel Juanes-, because, among other things, he was a personal friend of his. But the charge lacked content. But the use of the progressive label was profitable.

The interest of Pablo Llarena

Among the “own & rdquor; Someone who, until a month ago, expressed lack of the slightest interest in going to the TC is contemplated: Pablo Llarena. Now it is known that it is not out of indifference but because his wife, the magistrate Thorny Gem, was a candidate for member of the CGPJ and Llarena did not want to harm her career. But now that he is no longer renewed, he is interested.

But, judicial sources consulted indicate that not all conservative members are for this profile. Two of them, Juan Manuel Fernández and Juan Martínez Moya, the so-called Juanes, are inclined to return to the tradition of appointing a magistrate of the Third Chamber in the person of its current president, César Tolosa.

In this election of the 22nd, which no one manages to predict its outcomeGiven the gibberish that voting without a prior agreement will entail, there is a second derivative: conditioning the next presidency of the TC.

Related news

The conservative majority in the guarantee court will become a progressive majority. With the two new appointments, the progressive sector now has 6 magistrates. If what would normally be expected come out of the CGPJ, the progressives would become seven magistrates, while the conservatives would be 4. A fifth magistrate would be included in this group to replace Alfredo Montoyawhich is elected by the Senate, and which depends on the votes of the PSOE, guaranteed in the aborted Sánchez-Feijóo pact.

The conservatives want Lucas precisely because they have expectations that once the TC is renewed when the vote to elect president and vice-president takes place, their “preferred” progressive & rdquor; he will not vote for Candid Count-Pumpido. Conservatives concoct the presidency to Maria Luisa Balaguerhis “favorite” progressive.