The acting heads of the Supreme and CGPJ stage the bicephaly of the Judiciary
MADRID, 18 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Former State Attorney General Dolores Delgado has promised her position as prosecutor of the Robed Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court (TS) before a body led by the interim president of the High Court, Francisco Marín Castán, and with an interim president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Rafael Mozo, in the background.
This Tuesday’s is the first public act in which Marín Castán and Mozo -the two protagonists of the conflict unleashed by the succession of Carlos Lesmes after his resignation- coincide since they exercise their respective interim positions.
Marín Castán has occupied the main seat of the court, accompanied by Judge Manuel Marchena as Acting Vice President of the Supreme Court and the rest of the Government Chamber of the TS. Mozo, for his part, has sat to the left of the court in the chair occupied in solemn acts by the representatives of the powers of the State who come in robes.
The succession conflict broke out on October 9, when Lesmes announced his resignation as president of the CGPJ and the Supreme Court — positions held by the same person — due to the lack of tangible progress in the negotiations between PSOE and PP to renew the body of government of the judges, as he had warned during the opening of the judicial year, on September 7.
Lesmes tried to leave his succession tied by commissioning a report from the Technical Cabinet of the Supreme Court – later supported by the Government Chamber – in which it was concluded that Marín Castán would automatically replace him in both positions once his resignation was consummated because he is the one who holds the Vice Presidency of the Supreme.
However, the Plenary of the CGPJ agreed last Thursday to elevate Mozo, its oldest member, as “alternate president” of the CGPJ, which ‘de facto’ means dividing the head of the Judicial Power.
The Plenary argued that Marín Castán lacks legitimacy to assume both presidencies because he has held the Vice Presidency of the Supreme Court on an interim basis since 2019. For the same reasons, the members conceded that Mozo will not be able to act as the highest authority of the TS either.
Mozo’s enthronement went ahead with 16 of the 18 votes at stake. The only member who voted against, Wenceslao Olea, has already filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against said designation, also requesting as a precautionary measure that it be suspended, an issue that the Contentious-Administrative Chamber must resolve within 48 hours.
In the midst of this unprecedented scenario, Delgado has promised her position sponsored by the chief prosecutor of the National Court, Jesús Alonso, and the robed prosecutor of the Supreme Court’s Military Chamber, Juan Antonio Pozo Vilches.
Thus, he has assumed the position after being promoted to the highest category of the fiscal career at the proposal of his successor, Álvaro García Ortiz, and against the opinion of the majority of the Fiscal Council.
Delgado obtained the first vacancy for the Chamber’s prosecutor since he resigned on July 20, alleging health reasons after the spinal operation he underwent in April. If he had not obtained it, he was expected to return to his position as prosecutor in the National Court.
In the act of this Tuesday, the prosecutor Ana García León has also promised her position as chief prosecutor of the Technical Secretariat of the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE). The prosecutor of the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, Eduardo Esteban Rincón, and the lieutenant prosecutor of the Supreme Court, María de los Ángeles Sánchez Conde, have been her godparents.
Thus, García León will fill the void left by García Ortiz after being appointed as the new attorney general. The now head of the Public Ministry announced during his inauguration that she would be his successor and said that she was “the best example of team, security and reliability of the culmination of collective work.”
