The judiciary is bleeding to death with signs of a worse situation in the remainder of the year. There are already eighty vacant seats in the Supreme Court, the higher courts and the hearings.
These positions cannot be occupied due to the blockade in the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). The scenario of denial by the Popular Party and the PSOE's movements to deal with the situation have led to an absolute blockade with the consequent collapse of the judicial bodies, mainly the Supreme Court.
According to the data offered by the governing body of judges to Efe, there are currently 22 vacancies in the Supreme Court, 33 in higher courts, 24 in provincial courts and one in the National Court.
This same week, a magistrate of the Criminal Chamber of the High Court, Miguel Colmenero, retires. Until now, this Chamber was the only one that had not suffered losses due to retirement or death or leave of absence, unlike others such as the Contentious-Administrative Chamber and the Social Chamber, the most affected today.
The reason for this collapse is that in 2021 the parties that make up the coalition government promoted a reform of the organic law of the judiciary that prohibits making appointments -which affect the high courts- to the governing body of the judges while their members are, as has been the case since 2018, in office.
The objective of this measure was to put pressure on the PP to renew the Council once the wings of the conservative majority of the body had been clipped. But this had no effect, and the consequences now are, as the Supreme Court itself has warned on several occasions, the collapse of the court.
Sources from that court make a pessimistic x-ray of the situation. The calculation they have is that, for example, in the Social Chamber – the one that reviews dismissals, leaves, maternity and paternity rights or employment regulations, among others –, if resources stopped coming in at this time, it would take time to resolve those that It's already in the queue for about three years.
These sources explain that they are waiting for the Ministry of Justice to authorize the sending of more lawyers to help the magistrates expedite the resources. The Supreme Court estimates that in 2023 some 1,230 fewer sentences will be handed down between the Contentious and Social Chambers.
The reason is that in the first one there are 12 vacancies while in the other there are five less. The current scenario is not without its bizarre overtones. While the Government maintains that the CGPJ is delegitimized by having been in office for more than four years, it recalls that this situation derives from the inability of the two main political formations to name the members as is their obligation.
Both the PSOE and the PP consider a negotiation impossible before the general elections, so the situation, at least, will be maintained until 2024, which will generate more vacancies before the next retirements of magistrates.
At the same time, the Constitutional Court (TC) has pending resolution of the appeals filed against the reform that limits the functions of the CGPJ since 2021. Supreme Court sources are extremely critical of the guarantee body because it is up to them to end the "bleeding" that is being experienced, although they trust that it will resolve the situation. If the TC declared the reform unconstitutional, the Council could resume the appointments. The court will not review this matter until June.
