The formulation seems simple: "The Popular Party has to comply with the Constitution and the General Council of the Judiciary has to comply with the law," they warn in Moncloa.
The resolution of this institutional crisis, however, was again postponed indefinitely once Alberto Núñez Feijóo suspended the negotiations to renew the governing body of the judges as long as Pedro Sánchez does not renounce reforming the crime of sedition in the Penal Code.
But in the Government they now trust that this "unilateral rupture" of the PP leader will force, at least, to unblock the appointments also pending in the Constitutional Court (TC). There are two by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), and another two by the Executive, which in any case would change the orientation – from conservative to progressive – of the court of constitutional guarantees.
The progressive sector of the CGPJ moved yesterday in this same direction, by putting its proposal for the TC on the table: the magistrate of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court, José Manuel Bandrés. At the same time, the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, urged the conservative members of the governing body of the judges to decide on their proposal for the TC without further delay.
If this were the case, the Government would appoint the other two magistrates that it is responsible for proposing, without having to undertake this operation alone, to which it would be forced in the event that the conservative sector of the CGPJ were determined to keep the renewal of the CT.
Bolaños celebrated the ongoing negotiations within the CGPJ, once the talks between the government and the PP were blown up. “I want to remind you that since July, the General Council of the Judiciary can already appoint two magistrates of the Constitutional Court. On September 13, the deadline for them to appoint their two magistrates of the TC ended, with which we are already late, ”pressed the Minister of the Presidency.
"I want to ask the members of the CGPJ, especially those who have been most reluctant, the same thing that any judge asks citizens: to comply with the law, to do so as soon as possible and that we begin to resolve this mess that has been caused by Feijóo's lack of personality and leadership,” Bolaños demanded from the conservative sector of the judges' governing body.
In fact, the conservative members of the CGPJ also assumed on Wednesday night as "essential" the appointment of the pending TC magistrates, and agreed to meet again yesterday the negotiating commission created between the two blocks to reach an understanding (see information from this same page). The intention of the progressive members in putting Bandrés's name in black on white as their candidate was precisely to force the conservatives to step forward.
Sources of the CGPJ trust that in the plenary session at the end of this month of November the name of the two magistrates can already be taken by consensus so that they are voted out by a majority of the body.
This would give the Government free rein to name the two of its own that are pending. Although the Executive has already opened the door to carry out its appointments without waiting for the CGPJ, there are certain doubts about its constitutionality because the law establishes that the renewal of the TC must be by thirds, that is, four by four magistrates.
If these four appointments are finally carried out, the TC would turn around and have a progressive majority and a change in the presidency. Today the name that sounds most powerful to replace Pedro González Trevijano is that of Cándido Conde-Pumpido, who already held the position of State Attorney General during the mandate of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
The breakup of Feijóo will prevent him, however, from reaching an agreement with the PSOE to appoint another TC magistrate pending by the Senate, after the resignation for health reasons of magistrate Alfredo Montoya, and who should be from the conservative fee.
