The Government justifies its reform to renew the TC because the PP refused to negotiate

The soap opera for the renovation of the General Council of the Judiciary and now also from constitutional Court reaches its nth chapter. And it was foreseeable that in the face of a new movement by the Government, the furious response of the PP and the counter-reply of the Executive would arrive, defending and justifying the step taken. And that is what happened again in the last few hours, after Pedro Sánchez decided to hit the table: to register in Congress a reform of the law so that the CGPJ can appoint the two magistrates to the TC that correspond to it. When the initiative [aquí en PDF] is approved by the Chambers, and it is estimated that the process will be finished in July, it will be possible, if there are no obstacles, to renew the third that touches of the court of guarantees: the two appointed by the Executive and the two proposed by the Judiciary, as mandated by the article 159.3 of the Magna Carta.

The decision was released late on Thursday. This Friday, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, warned that his party understands that the Executive “breaks any type of bridge” in the negotiation to update the CGPJ, whose mandate expired three and a half years ago and that is the origin of the whole conflict. “The government seems to be he is no longer interested in negotiating the CGPJ, but what interests him is to control the Constitutional Court. We were negotiating and we found out through the media, in the midst of conversations, that the Government is unilaterally going to modify the Council of the Judiciary,” he said in an interview on Telecinco. The head of the PP has the “feeling” that the Socialists do not they want to negotiate”any“with the PP, neither in economy or in foreign and defense policy.

“That stop lying Mr. Feijóo“, replied the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, a little later in Madrid. “There was no negotiating table. You have not sat down since you are president of the PP. More than 80 days. Every day dizzying the partridge with a thousand and one excuses. Today is this, tomorrow is another, each day a different one to violate the Constitution. They block the renewal of the TC and the CGPJ,” stressed the president’s right-hand man, visibly irritated by the popular leader’s response.

Bolaños maintained that it is no longer “a time for excuses”, but for “act real” to update the two constitutional bodies, because there were no talks underway: “You cannot consider negotiations broken that were not taking place. They are lying to the Spanish.”

The PSOE asks the groups for “responsibility” to change the law again and for the CGPJ to appoint TC magistrates https://t.co/usC4MRc3yv pic.twitter.com/2zhMk2u7gz

– Europe Press TV (@europapress_tv) June 24, 2022

urgent processing

The Government’s maneuver, launched just a few days after the PSOE hit the Andalusian elections, is in itself controversial. It was the coalition that promoted a reform of the Organic Law of the Judiciary of 1985 to prohibit the CGPJ from making appointments if it was already in office. That change was approved. in March 2021 and it is he who, in the end, has become like a boomerang against the PSOE. With this he intended to pressure the PP, but he did not succeed, and now he found that, due to this modification, the renewal of four magistrates of the TC, whose mandate expired on June 12, was hindered.

The bill registered this Friday by the Socialist Group [aquí en PDF] add a point to article 570 bis of organic law 6/1985, to allow the Judiciary to only make two appointments if it is in office: those of the two vacancies that it has to fill in the TC. The PSOE wants the initiative to be processed urgently and in a single reading (that is, without going through a presentation and commission and without amendments), so by the end of July it could be in the BOE after an express passage through Congress and Senate. Once the reform is completed, the Government and the CGPJ may each appoint the two magistrates that correspond to them by quota. With the renewal of four members, the TC will change sign: will have a progressive majority of 7-5. Now the Conservatives are the ones who dominate the body by the same majority, 7-5.

Bolaños defended the path chosen before the media: the Executive, he said, is “complying with the Constitution” and fulfilling his “obligation to renew the TC on time”. He acknowledged that the formula he considered, appointing the two magistrates that he has to do without waiting for the two that the Judiciary has to propose, “generated debate“, both within the High Court and among the experts. The Government was exposed to its step being slowed down at first, since the TC had slipped its opposition, and it is that the plenary session of the institution has the obligation to authorize the incorporation of new magistrates and assess that the requirements are met.

The PSOE registers this Friday in Congress a legal reform that returns the renewal of the TC to the CGPJ in office https://t.co/It6r02JvpH pic.twitter.com/OKByoReB9y

– Europe Press TV (@europapress_tv) June 23, 2022

“Spoken” with the purple

“That is why we have opted for this formula, which is impeccable from the legal point of viewwhich reinforces the prestige of the TC and does not generate any debate,” said the minister, who assured that this route “is the one that the PP has defended in declarations and public and private acts”, so that it is “surprising that it does not count with your approval.”

The socialists’ bill is organic in nature, so it will need absolute majority in Congress and Senate. Bolaños assured that the initiative will have a majority “more than enough” because “no one who is outside the obstructionism [del PP] may be against her.” Of course, Ciudadanos and Vox advanced their rejection.

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But it also showed a certain coldness United We Can: sources from the confederal space indicated that it is a proposal that comes only from the PSOE and that is not “agreed” with themand that it is also incomplete, since what they defend are legal reforms to facilitate the replacement of all constitutional bodies.

The minister replied that the reform “has been discussed” with the purples. “I am convinced that all the forces that seek and want the TC to be renewed as soon as possible will support this bill,” he concluded. The socialist spokesman in the lower house, Héctor Gómez, stressed the same line: he hoped to have the support because the proposal is a “exercise of maximum responsibility” to “put the TC into operation as soon as possible.” “We cannot wait sine die” for the PP, he indicated.