The tip of the ball of the trap that the progressive sector managed to set for the little Machiavelli Jose Maria Macias -who has complained in plenary session General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) last Tuesday 27 for the adjective used in these pages next to the name of the diplomatic Y Florentine political philosopher– you have to look for it in the extraordinary plenary session called urgently on the afternoon of Wednesday December 21 to resolve the appeal presented by the Senate Board against the prohibition to approve the final resolutions to which the Congress of Deputies gave the green light to deactivate the blockade of the Constitutional Court (TC).
That morning, Maria Luisa Balagueramong other magistrates, drew up his particular vote to advance in his work even though he had not received the order that had resolved to paralyze the resolution adopted by Congress on Wednesday 15 by 184 votes against 64 the amendments with the provisions indicated.
It would have been around two in the afternoon, when he answered the call from this journalist. “I am finishing the particular vote. And look, we still don’t have the order that has decided to paralyze the provisions of Congress and this afternoon the same situation will surely be repeated for the Senate. We already know what will happen. We are the same as the senators because the only thing that they have transferred to us is the ruling and the operative part & rdquor ;, he said.
The magistrate had zero expectations that in light of the Senate’s appeal -the position of the prosecutor-chief of the TC was not yet known, Pedro Crespo contrary to the very precautionary measures – a debate could be opened in the new plenary session that afternoon. “It is the same thing that happened with the decree on the state of alarm & rdquor ;, he said.
During the plenary session, the magistrates of the progressive sector pulled the appeal of the Senate that they considered incontestable in their eight points. And above all, they highlighted how the Senate stressed that the prohibition – they applied to the Senate a prohibition that had been requested for the Congress of Deputies for an alleged violation of the fundamental rights of the PP deputies – was not motivated, that is, the TC assumed guardianship without explaining why.
Faced with the arguments of the magistrates of the progressive sector, the rapporteur, Enrique Arnaldoa specialist in legal engineering, replied that the response to the Senate’s appeal was raised the same as in the Congress of Deputies and that everything was in the order.
María Luisa Balaguer could no longer take it. She turned to Arnaldo and raised the volume of her voice.
“What a fucking car! What are we talking about? It’s not written down! & Rdquor ;, she exclaimed. The plenary hall of the TC recorded an unknown tension. Balaguer also came from insisting in his many interviews with the media on the need to lower the tension and consider that the last six months, after the confrontations of the state of alarm and other setbacks inflicted on the Government, the presidency of Pedro Gonzalez-Trevijano it had passed into a peaceful phase.
The definitive conviction of the five magistrates of the progressive group that the main thing was to unblock the renewal with the entry of the two new members appointed by the Government and stopped by González-Trevijano -Juan Carlos Campo and Laura Díez- and the two that he had to appoint the CGPJ, arose precisely when they warned that the issue of the amendments -that is, the formal issue of not being “homogeneous& rdquor; or what they had nothing to do with the law approved – went to second place in the exchange of arguments.
It was González-Trevijano who elaborated the most on the matter. For the outgoing president, renew the TC by sixths – that is, only with the two magistrates appointed by the Government – it is unconstitutional. That is to say: it is a fundamental issue. Whether by amendment, bill or bill. It was useless that González-Trevijano himself had signed a sentence in 2016 where he considered himself in accordance with the Constitution partially renew the CGPJ -that is to say, if one of the two legislative chambers could not name its candidates and the other could, that was valid- and that, in addition, it should be pointed out that it was a duty, not just a power, applicable to the renewal of the TC itself .
Deactivation of the lock
Therefore, this argument made it impossible to address the measures to deactivate the blockade, for example, through a bill, which could be ready in two weeks, since it did not require the mandatory reports. González-Trevijano and Arnaldo would have stifled that bill. And instead of renewing the TC, as was thought, in a couple of additional months, the situation could become entrenched like the one that the CGPJ is going through, a body for which the president of the PP, Alberto Nuñez Feijóodoes not provide for renewal until after the general elections at the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024.
In the same way that the conservative sector of the CGPJ and that of the TC kept in touch, the progressives of both bodies came to the conclusion that only appointments to the CGPJ could unlock the TC.
In this context, the conservative sector led by Macias in the CGPJ, after the two coups in Congress and the Senate, wanted to show that those responsible for the blockade were the progressives, who had already voted against the candidacies of magistrates César Tolosa and Pablo Lucas, frustrating the 11 required votes. Macías was convinced that for this sector it was to appoint the magistrate Jose Manuel Bandres or nothing. The social magistrate, Juan Martínez Moya, proposed to Macías to propose in the new plenary session Tolosa and María Luisa Segoviano, his colleague in labor matters -what is needed in the TC after the departure of Fernando Valdés and Alfredo Montoya-, a woman , with excellent relations with the progressive sector, which had figured in the first list of five magistrates of the progressives.
Macías’ fixed idea was that whatever the name, the progressive sector would remain in Bandrés.
When on Thursday the 22nd, the day after the plenary session that enshrined the prohibition of the Senate from approving the provisions, the news reached the TC that the conservative sector of the CGPJ requested a new extraordinary plenary session to make the appointments, and the progressives saw the proposal of Maria Luisa Segoviano they sang: “bingo!”. On Friday the 22nd, the progressive members swore to support the duo in the greatest secrecy because they did not believe in a pact with the conservativess.
Last Wednesday, an hour before the plenary session, the progressives only studied how to vote. The vowel Roser Bach it would be the first in the sector -after the first three votes of Carmona, Macías and Nuria Díaz Abad- and, therefore, it had to vote without comment so as not to give the impression that there was a designed policy. She limited herself to saying: by Tolosa-Segoviano.
Once the Tolosa-Segovian duo was secured, the following members Mar Cabrejas, Álvaro Cuesta, Clara Martínez de Careaga, Pilar Sepúlveda and Concepción Sáez would explain that they were renouncing Bandrés’ candidacy “by institutional sense”.
Related news
Once the four magistrates take office, next week, the decree-laws of González-Trevijano and Antonio Narváez and the appointment of Juan Carlos Campo, Laura Díez, César Tolosa and María Luisa Segoviano will come out. According to the Organic Law of the Constitutional Court, the acting president, which in this case is will be Ricardo Enriquez, will convene the Plenary to appoint a new president and vice president.
Everything indicates that the progressive sector will choose the magistrate Candid Count-Pumpido and there will be an attempt by this sector to make Enríquez the vice president.