The European mediation to renew the CGPJ is a new political rescue, at the own request of Spain, of the PP. A big difference with the banking system of 2012, the result of pressure from the markets and from Germany, which wanted to save its banks
Since the recovery of democracy, Spain has suffered two bailouts, with the corresponding public and direct intervention in its internal affairs by foreign powers. An economic one, more than ten years ago, economic, banking, exactly. Another, right now, in this case political and linked to justice.
The first was in June 2012, a consequence of the intervention of Bankia, the financial entity created under the umbrella of Caja Madrid, the entity that was born from an operation sponsored by the popular leaders of the time, especially from the Community of Madrid of Esperanza. Aguirre and the then leader of the opposition, Mariano Rajoy. As a result of the struggle between both politicians for control of the giant, Rodrigo Rato ended up, suddenly, as its president.
The Bankia crisis led to its nationalization, the request to Europe for a financing line of 100,000 million - of which less than half was used and of which a part still has to be returned - and the imposition of drastic economic and legislative measures that implied the virtual disappearance of the boxes. It was the result of the walk through the dark side of finance at the hands of the men in black, the troika formed by the European Commission, the ECB and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Rajoy himself, already as President of the Government, had to ask for the rescue, despite his reluctance to intervene Bankia and recognize the problem. Unfortunately for his plans, the then president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, did not utter his magic words before the nationalization - "During our mandate, the ECB is willing to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro" - with which he put an end to the storm. It was in July, fifty days after the demand for aid to Europe.
The rescue was accepted, but not at the request or initiative of the political leaders: neither Rajoy nor the then general secretary of the PSOE, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba. The Spanish leaders and economic powers bowed their heads and begged Europe for help. It was the result of both the digestion of the bursting of the enormous real estate bubble and the design of European policy, led by Angela Merkel's Germany, to face the great financial crisis: making debtor countries pay exclusively to save creditor banks. , especially the German and French.
Resigned, they accepted to be part of the group of those plagued: Greece, Portugal and Ireland. Subjected to the tutelage of unforgiving partners, to whom all the economic measures that would be adopted to meet their demands had to be detailed.
The second Spanish rescue, the current one, political, is also partial, as was the previous one. It is not the entire Spanish constitutional system that is under scrutiny. And it also has the PP as the main protagonist. This is the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). A legally guided and regulated process, of the utmost importance for the functioning of one of the three great powers of the State. Change was blocked for a long time, first due to the internal weakness of the new leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, harassed by the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Then for the common interest in maintaining their absolute control of the governing body of the judges.
And to negotiate, the Popular Party proposed that Europe act as a mediator, in the person of the European Commissioner for Justice, their ideological colleague Didier Reynders. When they already knew that they were not going to govern after the elections and with the negotiation of the amnesty on the table.
And here begin the differences between this second rescue and the first. To begin with, it has not been the result of the defeat between all-powerful external forces, what the markets and the risk premium represented in the euro crisis. In this latest episode, Europe had already warned Spain of the need to proceed with the renewal of the CGPJ, since its expiration was affecting the democratic quality of justice, but it was a pressure to address it, not to intervene or impose a different model. .
The great contrast with 2012 is that the transfer of authority to Europe has been a demand of the PP in its plan to delegitimize the majority of the investiture and seek protection outside Congress against the amnesty. An unusual fact, the enthusiastic request for foreign aid, which reveals one of Spain's weaknesses. The PP cannot govern: this is what the Congress deputies decided, thanks to the votes, but it does not want to accept that it will have to remain in the opposition. And so profound is its refusal that it manages to block the normal development of institutional life, mobilizing the independent judiciary more than the street.
And in the service of this denial of reality and the unrecognized struggle by the internal leadership, it swallows national pride, which it displays day in and day out, to give up sovereignty. And he puts on the table a possible European Bonaparte who will break in his favor the practical tie that grips Spanish politics. Without ruling out that if it doesn't go well, they will also throw friend Reynders overboard.
In front, the Government of Pedro Sánchez, which is doing what is fair, negotiating with various parties and subject to suffocating political, judicial and media pressure. The path of economic emergency has already been ruled out: Spain is sinking, the crisis is around the corner, investors are fleeing Spain. In view of the indicators and profits of banks and large companies; Nobody is going to run away.
But the consequences of European mediation, like those of the bank bailout, will be very important. Spain has asked for protection, conveys inability to self-govern, infantilizes itself in front of its most important partners and reduces its authority and influence in community affairs. And this is not just an image problem; It is political and it will end up being economic. We will have to remember how things were.
