The Constitutional awaits the renewal of four magistrates and the coverage of a fifth place
MADRID, 28 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The suspension of negotiations between the PP and PSOE to renew the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), due to the Government’s intention to reform the crime of sedition, has once again put on the table the need to advance in the substitution of the four magistrates of the Constitutional Court (TC) whose mandate expired on June 12, a task that the governing body of the judges intends to resume to appoint its two candidates.
The members of the CGPJ began these negotiations when a second reform of the Organic Law of the Judiciary (LOPJ) gave them back the ability to propose their two magistrates for the TC. After several comings and goings, including a threat of blocking by the ‘hard core’, the agreement was practically done -waiting for more than the required 12 votes-, but the resignation of Carlos Lesmes on the 9th of October stopped it, as Europa Press has learned.
The CGPJ, in office for almost four years, was confident that the reactivation of the negotiations between PP and PSOE to renew it, thanks to the departure of Lesmes, would lead to the constitution of a new Council that would be in charge of appointing the duo to the Constitutional. However, the failure of the contacts between ‘popular’ and socialists has returned them to the starting box, according to the sources consulted by Europa Press.
Thus, the 18 members who currently make up the CGPJ –after retirement and death– place among their most urgent tasks that of proposing their candidates to the court of guarantees, aware that it is a constitutional obligation. The aforementioned sources indicate that the first step will be to call a meeting of the negotiating commission, made up of Álvaro Cuesta and Roser Bach, on the progressive side, and José Antonio Ballestero and Carmen Llombart, on the conservative side.
The last time that the spokesmen of both currents met formally was on October 5. Then, the negotiation was blown up due to the differences regarding the ‘tempo’, which led the progressive representatives to expand contacts to all the members, thus achieving progress towards the agreement.
It should be remembered that these two candidates are part of the third that the Constitution entrusts to renew the CGPJ and the Government in equal parts. It is, specifically, the president of the TC, Pedro González-Trevijano; the vice president, Juan Antonio Xiol; and judges Antonio Narváez and Santiago Martínez-Vares. In their day, González-Trevijano and Narváez were the two proposed by the Government of Mariano Rajoy, while Xiol and Martínez-Vares were the ones nominated by the Council.
After that June 12, the Government slipped the possibility of appointing its candidates without waiting for the Council to appoint its own, but legal doubts about whether the two proposed by Moncloa could take office without the complete ‘pack’ led to promoting that second reform of the LOPJ for the CGPJ to designate its own.
Legal sources point out that the foreseeable thing is that the Government will give a reasonable time – which could last until the end of the year – to the CGPJ to decide on its two candidates and send the complete proposal to the Plenary of the TC, which will be the one who gives the go-ahead final to the four applicants.
In the event that the negotiations within the CGPJ run aground again, the sources believe that the Government could act on its own because the aforementioned legal doubts would have disappeared when on July 20 the power to appoint the two candidates for the TC.
In this regard, they explain that the scenario has changed since then because one thing is for the CGPJ to be handcuffed and another for it to castle. In his opinion, in the second case there would be no legal debate and the plenary session of the TC should give free rein to the two from the Government to take office, even if it were without the other two.
In addition, it must be taken into account that in the Constitutional Court there is a fifth place at stake. That of Judge Alfredo Montoya, who resigned on July 27 for health reasons.
This is one of the vacancies that corresponds to fill the Senate. The sources questioned by this news agency reveal that this fifth seat was part of the complete picture of the negotiations between the PP and PSOE on the Judiciary and that the Socialists were willing to cede it to the ‘popular’ to facilitate the agreement.
Suspended these negotiations, the replacement of Montoya is once again an independent matter, so if the PSOE manages to gather the majority of 3/5 that is required for this appointment in the upper house, it could cover the position, although the sources warn of that this trick could be kept to force the resumption of contacts with the PP to renew the CGPJ.
Whether with this fifth place or not, the current majority in favor of the conservative wing in the TC will change once the new appointments materialize. Only the candidates appointed by Moncloa would cause a turnaround for the benefit of the progressive current.
