The opening of the judicial year is celebrated at a time of maximum tension: why is the renewal of justice still entrenched? – 20minutes.es

The opening of the judicial year, the most relevant formal act that exists for the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), will take place in the presence of King Felipe VI this Wednesday, September 7, within the framework of a “bleak panorama” for justice This is the view of the president of the CGPJ and the Supreme Court, Carlos Lesmes, who will dedicate his speech to denouncing the situation of blockade of the CGPJ, which has turned Spanish justice upside down. The solemn act is celebrated in a week full of events within the Judiciary, beginning with the inauguration of the new State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, continuing with the alleged pressure from the Government on Lesmes to vote for two members of the TC in exchange for supporting the Constitutional Court, and culminating with the difficult vote of the CGPJ, scheduled for this coming September 8. The imbroglio of the judicial system is complex and goes back a long way. Now that justice seems to reach a limit situation, at the same time that the elections are approaching, it is worth stopping to understand what is happening, what interests are at stake and how this can affect the day-to-day life of citizens. What is the General Council of the Judiciary? The CGPJ is the governing body of the Spanish Judiciary and its main function is to elect which judges occupy certain positions. The body, in charge of ensuring the independence of the judges, is responsible for the election of the magistrates of the Supreme Court and of two of the magistrates of the Constitutional Court. It also appoints the presidents of the High Courts of Justice and Provincial Courts, as well as many other magistrates. The CGPJ is, on the other hand, a judge among judges. It is in charge of inspecting the courts, imposing sanctions on judges who commit minor offenses and managing the training of future magistrates. The expiration of the body, which should have renewed its members more than 1,300 days ago, affects the entire judicial system, reaching cause a blockage in the renewal of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. “Soon there will be chambers of the Supreme Court that will not be able to regularly compose their sections and in months the Central Military Tribunal will have run out of all its members and will not be able to meet,” Lesmes said in this regard last Monday. Why Why is the body not renewed? What does the blockade mean? The CGPJ is designated by the Constitution to renew its members every five years. The body is made up of 20 members and a president who, in the Spanish model, are chosen by Parliament. The Congress elects ten members and the Senate another ten, in both cases with a three-fifths majority. Of each group, six must be judges and magistrates, and the rest will be jurists and lawyers. The judges are chosen from a list of candidates submitted by the judges’ associations. Lawyers and jurists are chosen by parliamentary groups after passing through the appointments committee. The idea, in essence, is that the renewal of the Judiciary requires consensus in Parliament, a circumstance that has not occurred in the last four years. Currently, due to the lack of consensus, the members of the CGPJ appointed in 2013 during the first legislature of Mariano Rajoy remain in office. Political parties traditionally wage a battle for control of justice. Currently, the PSOE points to the PP as responsible for the blockade and accuses it of wanting to maintain a conservative majority in the body of judges. A situation that has been going on for four years now, between pressure from the EU and blockades in the Spanish justice system. The Popular Party, since the time of Casado, has conditioned the renewal of the CGPJ to a previous change of law in the election of its members by which the judges would choose a part of its governing body. The PSOE, in turn, decided to publish a law at the end of March to limit the powers of the CGPJ when it is in office. In this way, the body was unable to vote for members of the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and other courts. Meanwhile, June was approaching, the month in which two Constitutional magistrates had to leave office without the possibility of the CGPJ choosing substitutes. Not even that pressure was enough for an agreement to be reached. The Popular Party confirmed on June 6 that there would be no pact for the moment and blamed the PSOE for the precarious situation of justice. “Who has limited the functions of the CGPJ so that it cannot renew its two members on June 12? The Government, with a law that has led the body to this situation,” the popular settled. The date arrived and the magistrates left their seats, giving rise to a mess that is still pending resolution. To stop it, the PSOE launched an express reform of the Organic Law of the Judiciary in July, ensuring that the body of power of the judges was enabled to appoint two new magistrates of the TC, a task with a deadline: September 13. What positions are faced around the renewal of the TC? The renewal of the members of the Constitutional Court is, without a doubt, the most relevant legal issue of the beginning of the course. Around him, the different opposing positions inside and outside the Council itself are configured. The president of the body, Carlos Lesmes, is trying to get the vote of the two members to go ahead, at the same time that he denounces the politicians as responsible for the blockade of the CGPJ. Last Monday El Mundo published information assuring that the Executive was pressuring Lesmes to renew the TC in exchange for providing him with a position in the court of guarantees. The information caused outrage in the ranks of the Popular Party and Lesmes assured that he was not interested in the position that the Government supposedly offered him. “In the Government they know perfectly well that I do not want to be a candidate. They know it because I have made it clear to them,” settled the magistrate. Regarding the real interests that move Lesmes to carry out the voting of the members, he himself declared last Monday that it is because he does not understand that the body of judges is “in default” since “it must comply with the law even if he doesn’t like it”. Lesmes knows, despite everything, that he doesn’t have it all with him in the renewal of the TC and that consensus among the members is difficult to achieve, even more so in the period indicated by the Government. The proof of This is the meeting held this Tuesday by the conservative wing of the Council with the aim of frustrating the appointment. A group of conservative members of the CGPJ has organized to send a strong message against the initiative of the Executive, by which the Council must renew the TC but remains disabled for the rest of the powers. In parallel, Lesmes continues his race against the clock to find the consensus vote and, although he assures that “there are plenty of magistrates on one side and the other” willing to take office, he is not like that in the conservative wing, according to EFE. The point is that, given the foreseeable change of majorities in favor of the progressives, some conservative judges consider that they will end up in irrelevance if they go to the court of guarantees. The renewal of the Constitutional Court is not well received by the opposition to the Executive of Sanchez. A change of balance in favor of the progressives in the Constitutional Court could throw overboard several resources pending estimation presented by the PP to PSOE laws. The future of the euthanasia law, the abortion law and the Celaá law, appealed by the popular and by Vox, depends on what the Constitutional decides. What role does the EU play in all this? The European Union, which looks with magnifies the entrenched situation of Spanish justice, published a report last July urging Spain to urgently renew the Council of the Judiciary. That same month, European pressure was reiterated in the mouth of the EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynerds. The Belgian interviewed a Spanish media to remember that “there has been a paralysis of appointments for too long.” Reynders also recommended the reform of the mechanism for electing members of the Council, in order for Spain to comply “with European standards.” The Commissioner for Justice assured that “if there is no progress” after a few years, the EU plans to use infringement procedures and appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union.