Carlos Lesmes has just made official his resignation as president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and of the Supreme Court after communicating his resignation to King Felipe VI. The resignation has also been communicated to the President of the Government -through the Ministry of Justice-, and the presidents of the Congress of Deputies, the Senate and the Constitutional Court. He ends almost nine years in office, four more than he was entitled to. As of the publication of his resignation in the Official State Gazette (BOE), he will return to his position as a magistrate of the Administrative Litigation Chamber of the high court.
Lesmes has found no other solution. In recent years he has tried to get the PSOE and the PP to agree to renew the body of judges and fulfill the constitutional mandate that he sets at five years for each term.
The former leader of the PP Pablo Casado began a blockade race with diverse and different arguments. In his last stage, he found the definitive argument to prevent the organ from being renewed, despite the fact that the PSOE's offer was to make a joint list of half conservative members and the other half progressive. Casado clung to the requests of various judicial associations to demand a reform of the law so that it is the judges and not the Parliament who elect the members.
With the arrival of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, hope was recovered within the Council that he would sit down to negotiate with the Government and unblock a situation that was harming the judicial system.
However, the head of the opposition has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor and sticks firmly to his approach: either the law is reformed or there is no renewal of the CGPJ. The Government is clear: first it must be renewed and comply with the law.
Lesmes has tried until the last moment to reverse the situation. The visit a few days ago by the Commissioner for Justice of the European Union, Didier Reynders, to demand that the two main parties urgently renew the body did not have any kind of effect on his interlocutors.
So before this verification, Lesmes closes his stage. In his opinion, to continue would be to be an "accomplice" in a situation that he "abhors."
Before leaving, Lesmes summoned the Governing Chamber of the Supreme Court first and the Permanent Commission of the CGPJ later to give an account of his resignation. Many members did not expect his departure after he convened the extraordinary plenary session this Thursday.
After communicating the dismissal, the Government Chamber of the Supreme Court sent a statement regretting the resignation and showing its support for the president. The magistrates that compose it consider themselves obliged "to publicly express their deepest regret and that of all the magistrates of the Supreme Court for the situation, unprecedented in the constitutional experience of Spain, which has led them to make that decision."
Thus, it states that the non-compliance for almost four years by the Congress of Deputies and by the Senate of their obligation to appoint the members of the body is the judges who have to replace the one formed in 2013 and the impossibility that in the meantime the latter makes discretionary appointments, "they are not only taking the Supreme Court to a limit situation, but they are assuming, in addition, the delegitimization of the CGPJ itself, they harm the image of the Judiciary and seriously affect the Constitution itself". Thus, the Government Chamber requires an immediate end to this institutional disaster.
After learning of the resignation announcement, the progressive members met and agreed to request that it be incorporated into the agenda of Thursday's plenary session to study who should be Lesmes' replacement.
A report from the technical cabinet claimed by him ensures that the person who must assume the functions of president of the Supreme Court and the CGPJ is the current acting vice president of the high court, Francisco Marín. However, a sector of the members of the CGPJ believes that the person who should assume the two presidencies is the oldest member of the Council, that is, Rafael Mozo.
For now, from within the body of the judges there is no talk of more resignations although the progressive association Judges and Judges for Democracy (JJpD) has already asked the rest of the members to follow the same steps as Lesmes to force an immediate renewal after almost 1,000 days of blockade.
