Alberto Núñez Feijóo returns to the toughest postulates of the PP regarding the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary. He returns to what his predecessor, Pablo Casado, defended at the beginning, and there will be no renewal of the Judiciary if there is not “before” a reform of the law of election of members of the Council, to “depoliticize” this body, and according to the European Union guidelines, that “the judges elect the judges”.

When the PP, already led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, was about to sign an agreement with the Government, the renewal, with the current law, and a reform of the norm, for successive Councils, were negotiated at the same time, but everything went away ruined when the Government, contrary to what it told them, reformed the Penal Code to repeal the crime of sedition. Now that is no longer valid, and the PP, according to its spokesperson, Borja Sémper, in a press conference held after the meeting of the Steering Committee, will not renew the CGPJ until there is a reform in force in the manner of election.

The change is due, according to Sémper, to the fact that “a lot of things have happened” and that “we don’t trust Sánchez one bit”, and the PP leadership considers that “if by seven votes the PSOE has been able to grant an amnesty to the letter, I don’t know why they are not going to accept, due to the votes of the PSOE, a clear proposal” to renew the method of election of the General Council of the Judiciary.

“Today, unfortunately we are very far away,” confessed the popular spokesperson, and that is why the PP’s position becomes that “if Sánchez changes his position, we are willing to deepen the renewal of the Council, if not, “we will not sit down.” Furthermore, if Sánchez called him, he would not come if there were no previous steps from the Government, or from the PSOE, in depoliticization, “which is what Europe is asking for.”

What does the PP ask for to sit down? “a guarantee, beyond saying it” that it is willing to reform the way of election. Nothing is worth it, “if there was no investiture with Junts until there was a written agreement,” say PP sources, “we say that there will be no renewal of the Council if there is not previously a concrete agreement signed,” and with the premise that the renewal “will be done with the new law”, not with the old, because as Sémper said, “we are not going to put the fox to take care of the chickens.” The PP has entered the elections with a commitment to reinforce the separation of powers, he said, and “that is what it is going to do.”

The PP held its first steering committee with the new popular leaders, with a commitment to try to stop the amnesty law, with all the instruments at its disposal, both institutional, legal and on the street. The popular ones consider that we are living in a moment “of such gravity” that all mechanisms must be used. “And when we say all, we say all,” stressed Borja Sémper.

The popular ones consider especially serious not only the agreement reached by the PSOE and Junts for the investiture of Sánchez, but also everything that is being witnessed, with the meeting in Geneva with an international mediator, “an ignominy”, for the spokesperson, who responds to the former president’s desire to “internationalize the conflict”, which he always said. “Puigdemont has already broken Catalonia, and we are committed to ensuring that this nonsense does not break coexistence in Spain and does not divide the Spanish people.”

That is why they will demand explanations from the Government in Congress, in the Senate, and in the European Parliament, where two questions have already been presented in this regard. In Congress, it will be what Alberto Núñez Feijóo asks Pedro Sánchez. The PP will try to stop the law that the Government intends to approve because in its opinion “it represents an amendment to the entire Constitution, in its spirit and in its articles.”

Borja Sémper also responded to Vox and the break in relations with the PP that it announced. “I don’t know what type of relations you are referring to,” said the popular spokesperson, who stressed that the moment requires being “above the strategies of the parties, even if there are seats at stake.”

The PP, he assured, “is not going to be distracted by the internal circumstances of Vox”, which “are not going to condition the PP’s policy” because “we are not owed to another formation.” The popular ones do not think, either, of modifying the current governments that they share with Abascal’s formation, because what the PP always seeks is “stability.”