The plenary session of the Constitutional Court once again rejected last night the arguments put forward by the Senate and by the Prosecutor's Office of the guarantee court itself to reconsider the suspension of the vote that was to take place this afternoon in the Upper House precisely to unblock the renewal of the Constitutional Court (TC). The vote of the magistrates repeated the result, six in favor of maintaining the suspension and five against. The majority did not want to enter to analyze the challenges of the president and a magistrate, both conservatives, as requested by the Prosecutor's Office.
The public ministry tried to reverse the very precautionary measures agreed on Monday by the Constitutional Court through which the parliamentary processing of some amendments to modify the system of election of the magistrates of the guarantee body was paralyzed. In mid-afternoon yesterday, the public prosecutor appeared in the case and requested the recusal of two magistrates, in an attempt to remove two conservatives from the matter and change the majorities that would allow a change of criteria in the High Court.
The Prosecutor's Office requested the recusal of the president, Pedro González-Trevijano, and Antonio Narváez. In plenary session on Monday, the High Court rejected his challenge raised by PSOE and Unidas Podemos because they were not materially accepted as part of the case. Once the proceedings were transferred to the public prosecutor, he understood that both should withdraw from the matter because the reform of the law directly affects them since, as soon as it is approved, they must leave their posts. The Prosecutor's Office understands that there is an "unquestionable direct link" of both with the reform and, therefore, they must be separated. González-Trevijano convened a plenary session in the afternoon after learning of the request by the Upper House to lift the measures to allow voting on the amendments appealed by the PP in full parliamentary processing.
The emergency meeting of the TC was a consequence of the first appeal presented by the Senate on Tuesday night, to try to lift the suspension of the processing of the judicial reform before today, so that it could be voted as initially planned.
In its urgent challenge, the Senate alleged, to begin with, "a serious defenselessness", since the TC only notified it of the operative part of the order that suspended the parliamentary process and, therefore, it still does not know the reasons on which it based its decision. decision. In addition, the Upper House pointed out in its challenge brief that the "very exceptional" measure adopted on Monday by the TC is "unpublished, untimely, contradictory, disproportionate and with unpredictable consequences." Also, that "it produces irreparable damage to parliamentary autonomy."
"The suspension causes a disturbance of the utmost seriousness to a constitutionally protected interest, such as the fact that the legislative power of the State, embodied in the Courts that represent the Spanish people, can fully exercise the functions constitutionally attributed to it", claimed the Senate.
The Government and the PSOE, meanwhile, are also waiting to know the legal foundations of the decision adopted on Monday by the TC -and, above all, the arguments of the dissenting individual votes of the progressive magistrates- to finalize the bill that now force the renewal of the body of constitutional guarantees. And without anyone being able to put obstacles to its parliamentary processing, within approximately one month, enabling January in Congress. The spokesmen for the parliamentary groups of the investiture bloc, which will support or even sign the initiative, yesterday reiterated their total willingness. "The sooner the better," they all agreed. To achieve what Pedro Sánchez warned Alberto Núñez Feijóo yesterday: "Despite the fact that they try to make Parliament not speak, I guarantee that it will do so loud and clear."
