The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) moves away from the possibility of reaching an agreement to designate the two magistrates of the Constitutional Court and that corresponds to it. The difficulties in reaching this consensus come from the conservative bloc, which has not yet managed to put a name on the table.
The progressive and conservative members of the body of judges have formed a negotiating commission to each present a candidate and so that both names can come out by a majority of the plenary session.
The progressives have already put their candidate on the table, Supreme Court magistrate José Manuel Bandrés, although he is not viewed favorably by part of the conservative bloc. The first thing that the negotiating team made up of six members must do is designate two candidates so that later it can be discussed whether the majority agrees with these names.
The conservative block promised in the last meeting that it would make an effort to find a candidate and be able to reach the plenary session that will be held on the 24th with the two names already defined.
However, the conservatives have not managed to capture a candidate at a time of maximum tension between the judiciary and the Government. The various modifications proposed by the Socialists to limit the operation of the CGPJ greatly strained these relations, which have culminated in the proposal to modify sedition and the probe balloon on the possibility of also changing the crime of embezzlement of public funds in an attempt for reducing the sentences of the procés pro-independence leaders.
The PSOE and Unidas Podemos approved a counter-reform in July that allowed the CGPJ to make appointments to the TC and gave them a deadline, until September 13, to carry them out. Then came the resignation of the president of the CGPJ and the Supreme Court, Carlos Lesmes, which led to the start of talks between the PSOE and PP to renew the body, which has been in office for almost four years.
The rupture by the leader of the popular, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, of the talks caused the CGPJ to want to reactivate the appointments to the TC given the forecast that the interim situation will not change until at least 2024.
However, this declaration of intent has not yet achieved its results and the CGPJ is moving further and further away from fulfilling its ultimate goal of reaching the plenary session at the end of November with two clear candidates. In addition, one of the open debates within the body is whether the plenary session can approve these appointments at a time when the appointment of Rafael Mozo as a substitute for Lesmes in the presidency is being appealed to the Supreme Court.
A member and the Secretary General of the Council appealed the decision of the plenary session, understanding that the substitute could not be Mozo as the oldest member of the body, but Francisco Marín, the most senior magistrate of the Supreme Court. The conservatives believe that there is a risk that if they do not wait for the high court to decide and then knock down Mozo's appointment, it could affect all the decisions that he adopts in his role as president.
This lack of agreement once again puts the Government in a bind, which has yet to name its two candidates for the TC. The last thing that was said from the Executive is that if the CGPJ does not name its candidates in the November plenary session, Pedro Sánchez will present his own.
The interest to wait is that the Constitution says that the renewal of the TC must be done by thirds, and one of those thirds are four magistrates, two proposed by the CGPJ and another two by the Government. There are doubts that if they are not done at the same time it can be considered unconstitutional.
The Executive defends that it can legally do so, especially since the body of judges is failing to comply with the norm that requires it to make its appointments before September 13. However, the reality is that it is waiting to avoid possible appeals for unconstitutionality.
