The conservative wing of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) is not in the business of reducing the escalation of tension that the governing body of the judges - with its mandate expired five years ago - is experiencing with the Executive of Pedro Sánchez. The three conservative members who are part of the Permanent Commission have voted against a statement in which the "frontal rejection" of parliamentary investigation commissions that could establish responsibilities derived from the so-called lawfare was withdrawn. For the conservative sector, the criticism falls short, which is why they have issued a dissenting vote in which they raise the tone for the "inadmissible and unjustified climate of agitation and propaganda against judges and magistrates."
The extraordinary meeting that took place this Tuesday had been requested by the conservative members José Antonio Ballestero, Ángeles Carmona and Carmen Llombart, after the Board of the Congress of Deputies approved the constitution of the parliamentary investigation commissions on the jihadist attacks on the 17-A and on the work of the political police in Operation Catalunya.
In the draft that they brought to the meeting, in addition to the rejection of the investigative commissions, there was a criticism of the statements of members of the Government within "an unjustified climate of agitation and propaganda against judges and magistrates." However, its text is not the one that has finally come forward, after the president of the CGPJ, Vicente Guilarte, has voted against the conservatives' text.
The new statement has been approved thanks to the casting vote of the president of the CGPJ, Vicente Guilarte, together with that of the two progressive members Roser Bach and Mar Cabrejas. The member Pilar Sepúlveda has voted blank. In it, they reiterate their "frontal rejection" of parliamentary investigative commissions that may establish responsibilities derived from the so-called "lawfare", and warn that the CGPJ will remain "vigilant, in defense of judicial independence, in relation to the development of these commissions".
In their private vote, the conservative members reflect that their fellow members should have voted for their proposal to express the CGPJ's rejection of the statements by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, or his Minister of Transport, Oscar Puente, on the possible existence of "lawfare" cases, expressly targeting the governing body of judges and magistrates.
"This whole set of statements, the creation of investigation commissions into fraud of law, or the presentation of surprising complaints form and prepare an inadmissible and unjustified climate of agitation and propaganda against judges and magistrates who, however, have limited themselves to apply, with the guarantees of a fair trial according to the highest standards of the rule of law," they add.
In the statement that has been rejected, the conservatives also warn that "the time has come to continue with the announced opposition to the creation of said commissions in the legitimate exercise of the powers attributed to this Council, created precisely by the Spanish Constitution, overcoming the dictatorial stage of unity of power and coordination of functions, to guarantee the independence of the Judiciary."
