The Constitutional Court (TC) is a key body that is responsible for guaranteeing the correct interpretation of the Constitution, the framework law from which the entire Spanish legal system is deployed. With the current composition, the majority of the magistrates that compose it are conservatives, and this Monday they paralyzed the reform presented in Congress by the Socialists to modify their election system, which has caused an unprecedented clash between the powers of the State and a political storm that further strains the relationship between PP and PSOE.
The president and three of his magistrates have been in office for more than six months. Two of them must be renewed by the Government and the other two by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), in a joint renewal. To force its renewal, Congress approved last week a legislative reform by 184 votes in favor and 64 against. This reform had now passed to the Senate, where it has been paralyzed by the Constitutional Court.
But how did it get here?
To understand it, it is necessary to understand how the balance of power between conservatives and progressives works in this court, that is, who appoints them and when.
According to article 159.3 of the Constitution, "the members of the Constitutional Court will be appointed for a period of nine years and will be renewed by third parties every three." Since June 2022, the two magistrates appointed by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the two by the Government have had their terms expired and must be renewed.
The Government appointed its two candidates weeks ago: they are the former minister Juan Carlos Campo and the former high office in Moncloa and adviser to the Generalitat, Laura Díez.
For its part, the General Council of the Judiciary had to appoint two other applicants who are divided between the conservative and progressive sectors, that is, one for each sector. This is so because there is no way to reach consensus agreements for an agreed appointment as they have to be appointed by a three-fifths majority.
The progressives presented Jose Manuel Bandrés as a candidate, whose candidacy the conservative members rejected without providing any alternative since September.
As a final maneuver, the conservative block of the CGJP presented two candidates: César Tolosa, president of the Administrative Litigation Chamber of the Supreme Court and with a conservative profile; and Pablo Lucas, a progressive magistrate, from the same High Court Chamber and who controls the activity of the National Intelligence Center (CNI). With this formula, the conservative members sought to divide the progressive vote and avoid the election of Bandrés. However, in the extraordinary plenary session held this Tuesday, the alternative was rejected, so the necessary majorities have not been achieved for any of the three candidates to come out. Tolosa and Lucas obtained 10 votes -one short of being elected- and Bandrés obtained seven votes.
To try to avoid the blockade, PSOE and Unidas Podemos presented, within the framework of the reform of the Criminal Code, two amendments to reform the law of the Judiciary and the court itself to change its election system and facilitate the unblocking of the body that defends the magna carta
The reform proposed by the parties that make up the coalition government reached Congress last Thursday despite the filing of very precautionary measures by the PP and Vox to the guarantee court to prevent the debate. The Constitutional Court postponed the decision to a new extraordinary meeting called for this Monday, a term that allowed the reform to pass from the Lower House to the Senate.
The accumulated tensions broke out late last Monday, when the conservative majority of the Constitutional Court, after a long debate, made their vote prevail to stop the parliamentary process of the amendments.
The opposition leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has been pleased and has once again linked his commitment to unblock the judiciary to the Government withdrawing the sedition and embezzlement reforms. For his part, the Prime Minister has announced that he will abide by the TC's decision, but has shown himself willing to activate "as many measures as are necessary" to unblock the judicial and Constitutional power.
The reform proposal has been buried halfway between Congress and the Senate. For the moment, and pending the measures referred to by the President of the Government, the General Council of the Judiciary maintains the institutional blockade after the extraordinary plenary session in which none of the candidates proposed by progressives and conservatives to renew the Court Constitutional has obtained the necessary majority to be elected.
