The acting president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Rafael Mozo, has not yielded to the demands of the conservative members and has refused to convene an extraordinary plenary session to appoint the two magistrates of the Constitutional Court that corresponds to him.
As reported by the Mozo himself, the call requested by eight conservative members does not meet the requirements required by law and therefore cannot be contemplated.
The origin of this petition was the reform of the law of the judiciary and the Constitutional Court announced by the two parties that form the Government to end the requirement that the appointments by the CGPJ be made by three fifths and become by majority simple.
Since September, the conservatives had refused to present any candidate, which de facto prevented the Government from appointing its two magistrates, which would give it a progressive majority in the guarantee court.
In a previous reform, from July of this year, the Socialists, together with Unidos Podemos, demanded from the Council that the appointments be made in September, a term that has not been met.
For this reason and due to the constant blockade existing to renew the CGPJ, in office for four years, President Carlos Lesmes submitted his resignation, being replaced by the oldest member, the progressive Rafael Mozo.
After learning of the presentation of the reform to modify the system for electing magistrates of the TC, the conservative bloc hastened to request an extraordinary plenary session and present some candidates to avoid having to apply the new reform with a simple majority, which could benefit progressive candidates.
The request was made last Friday and in the absence of news from the president, this morning a member of the conservative bloc warned that if he rejected the plenary session, Mozo risked being sued.
The president's response has finally arrived, but in a sense opposite to that anticipated by the applicants. As he explained, the request formulated in this way cannot be addressed in application of article 35 of the Regulations of the CGPJ, "which requires the provision of all documents, if any, related to the agenda of the plenary session when requesting the holding of an extraordinary session"
The procedural rules to which it refers are that the plenary session can be convened at the initiative of the president or at the request of at least five members when they present the name of two candidates in the application. In addition, the proposals must be accompanied by the curriculum of the candidates, something that according to the body has not happened.
