Félix Bolaños is preparing for a term of maximum tension with the judiciary. As Minister of Justice he has to fight with the deep discomfort that exists in the judicial career due to the accusations by the partners of the Spanish Government of lawfare. In his first round of contacts as head of Justice in an attempt to calm spirits, Bolaños had planned a meeting with the president of the Supreme Court, Francisco Marín Castán. The minister wanted to show his support for judicial independence. However, Junts' direct attacks on both Congress and the Senate on Monday caused the president of the High Court to be forced to suspend the meeting. The spokespersons of the Catalan independence party in Congress, Miriam Nogueras, and in the Senate, Josep Lluís Cleries, sent direct accusations against the president of the Supreme Penal Chamber, Manuel Marchena; the instructor of the process, Pablo Llarena; the first instructor, Carmen Lamela, or former president Carlos Lesmes.
The Supreme Court interpreted these accusations as part of the orchestrated plan to discredit the judiciary and thus justify the amnesty law promoted by the PSOE, Sumar, Juntsi ERC. Marín Castán saw it as inappropriate to meet with the Minister of Justice, one of the members of the Spanish Government who promoted the amnesty law, just the day after Junts' accusations against the judges of the Supreme Court.
After the suspension of the meeting, Bolaños held a telephone conversation with Marín Castán in which he explained to him the Spanish Government's support for judicial independence. Ministerial sources say that both decided to resume the meeting on December 19. The Minister of Justice conveyed to the President of the Supreme Court his words both in the Senate and in Congress, where he affirmed that "Spain is a State governed by the rule of law, with a full democracy and the judges act with independence and separation of powers" and said that will work "for the prestige of judges and magistrates against any attack, no matter where it comes from".
In an attempt to disassociate himself from the words of the pro-independence parties, Bolaños insisted that his purpose as Minister of Justice is to defend judges from any disqualification and questioning of their prestige and to guarantee that they "can administer justice independently, within the framework of the Constitution, the rule of law and the separation of powers".
The discomfort of the judges is more than obvious. The president of the Supreme Court issued a statement in which he warned that "the personal attack in Parliament on the previous president of the Supreme Court, on a court president and on two magistrates of the court is unprecedented and does not correspond to the minimum requirements of the separation of powers in a State of law".
In a similar vein, the president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Vicente Guilarte, spoke out, who warned that "the people indicated, and any other member of the judicial career who may find themselves in the same circumstances, will find in this institution the firmest opposition to these attacks in defense of the jurisdictional work carried out by all of them".
Socialist sources showed their disappointment with Marín Castán's decision to postpone the meeting and not take into account Bolaños' words in defense of judicial independence, and that the criticisms were made by parties that are not the ones exercising the presidency of the central government.
After the words of Nogueras and Cleries, the judicial and prosecutor associations issued statements again yesterday. The conservative APM, together with the judicial association Francisco de Vitoria and the Independent Judicial Forum, and those of prosecutors AF and APIF, showed deep concern for "the attempt to instrumentalize justice for political purposes by delegitimizing members of the judiciary" .
For its part, the progressive Jutgesses i Jutges para la Democràcia issued its own statement, in which it rejects the public pointing out of members of the judicial career, but reminds the president of the CGPJ that this defense of TS magistrates does not he did the same when he tried to discredit the judge of the National Court José Ricardo de Prada.
