There is no better thermometer to calibrate the state of renewal of the Judiciary than to observe how the crossing of accusations that the Government and the opposition dedicated yesterday, in the aftermath of the battle waged by Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo in the Senate, once again left the margin open negotiations between PSOE and PP in judicial matters. To the point that, even, some names of candidates began to slip, despite the fact that the two main negotiators – the Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory, Félix Bolaños, and the institutional deputy secretary of the popular, Esteban González Pons – avoided commenting on the matter.
The first to endorse this specific cessation of hostilities was the general coordinator of the popular. Elías Bendodo gave up to three interviews on television in which, despite the insistence of the interviewers, he extended a firewall around the negotiation to end up acknowledging that progress is being made “at a good pace”.
The number three of the popular certified that the contacts between both parties have "multiplied in the last hours" and, after reiterating that the PP remains firm in the line of achieving greater judicial independence in compliance with the requirements of the European Union, found that the negotiation has entered a new phase that allows him to trust that "an agreement can be reached soon".
He was more concise, however, when asked about the names of the future new members, pointing out that the negotiations are still focusing on setting the suitability criteria, not vetoes, rather than on specific people.
From the Executive, the person in charge of giving the reply was the Minister of Finance and Deputy Secretary General of the PSOE, María Jesús Montero. And he did so by appealing, once again, to prudence: "This type of issue must be handled with absolute discretion" because "we have been so many times on the verge of reaching an agreement that until it is signed by both parties we cannot launch the bells on the fly”.
In exchange, Montero demanded from the Popular Party "a sense of State to comply with the constitutional will, from which it should never have distanced itself", because the renewal of the governing body of the judges is a "constitutional mandate", he reiterated.
The one who had no qualms about opening the melon of names was United We Can. The president of the parliamentary group in Congress, Jaume Asens, confirmed that, despite not participating directly in the negotiations, the minority partner of the coalition is perfectly informed of its development by Bolaños. And certifying the approach of positions between popular and socialists, he slipped his determination that the current Government delegate against gender violence, Vicky Rosell, can be a member of the renewed General Council of the Judiciary.
In statements to Onda Cero, Asens did not hide that Rosell is the "favorite candidate" for one of the two vocal positions to which she aspires. The second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, spoke in these same terms, who assured from Brussels that the agreement between PSOE and United We Can be fulfilled to form the General Council of the Judiciary, including members proposed by the 'purple' formation.
