The Supreme Court responds to the CGPJ: it refuses to urgently suspend Rafael Mozo as acting president of the Council of the Judiciary

The Supreme has responded to the challenge of the CGPJ that last week agreed to put Rafael Mozo at the head of the governing body of the Judges and has refused to suspend him urgently. The Plenary Session of the Council agreed to it despite a report from the Supreme Court in which Francisco Marín Castán, vice president of the Supreme Court, also in office, was considered de facto president. According to legal sources consulted by NIUS, the Sixth Section of the Third Chamber has rejected precautionary measures but has agreed at the same time to process the request for suspension as a precautionary measure to later decide whether to equally reject it or accept it, all of this without assessing the merits of said resources. After the departure of Carlos Lesmes from the presidency, 16 members of the CGPJ decided to appoint his partner as a substitute for the president. His thesis is that Marín Castán is not the president of the Supreme Court with all the functions, since he was acting vice president. After four years of blockade, in addition, the members did not agree that an interim, alien to the Plenary, should start organizing its operation, and decided to open a stage of bicephaly. But… the decision was not unanimous. One of the members, Mar Cabreja, a progressive like Rafael Mozo, refused to participate in the plenary session and vote, because she considered that designation to be “illegal” and did not want to be part of it. Another, Wenceslao Olea, not only voted against, but also cast a strong private opinion and this Monday he went to the Supreme Court to appeal the agreement. The appeal was accompanied by a request to suspend the agreement in a very precautionary manner, which has forced the Contentious-Administrative Chamber to rule within 48 hours. At the moment, the reason is for the vocal author of the appeal, but it advances where the interpretation of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court can go. Wenceslao Olea’s private vote: bicephaly means “violating the Constitution” In his private vote, Wenceslao Olea made more than clear the reasons that have led him to appeal the appointment of Rafael Mozo, appointed for being the oldest member . In the first place, he rejected the existence of a bicephaly when considering that the president of the Supreme Court should be from the CGPJ, because that meant violating “nothing more and nothing less than the Constitution.” In addition, he denied the CGPJ the competence to independently appoint a president. And not only that, in his opinion, Rafael Mozo does not meet the requirements and that being the oldest member is not reason enough. In his writing, Olea recalled that Marín Castán, the acting president of the Supreme Court– “has also been appointed by the Plenary,” so if his functions include the replacement of the president, he also has the presidency of the CGPJ. With these arguments on the table, the same room to which Carlos Lesmes has returned -although he is not part of this deliberation- has decided to suspend the CGPJ assignment to his partner. Now it remains to be seen how they respond.