The memorable resignation of the president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the Supreme Court a year ago has not had the effect that was intended. The intention of Carlos Lesmes, when he announced through an institutional video that he was leaving his position and recovering his position as a Supreme Court judge, was to make the PP and the PSOE see reason so that they would put an end to the blockade of the Judiciary . It was a desperate attempt and it came to nothing.
Lesmes presented his resignation in October 2022, after almost four years of delay in the renewal of the governing body of the judges. He thus fulfilled a threat that he had first made before the King during the opening of the judicial year, at the beginning of September of that year. The then president of the CGPJ gave the two main parties a month to reach an agreement. The deadline had been set for October Twelfth. He could not appear next to Felipe VI during the military parade after the serious warning issued.
On October 10, Lesmes made his resignation effective due to the “repeated violation” of the deadline to comply with the constitutional mandate to renew the body and due to the inability of PSOE and PP to reach an agreement. The Twelfth of October was celebrated without representation from the Judiciary.
That coup d’effect seemed like it was going to have positive consequences. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, met at the Moncloa, they spoke, but everything remained the same. In one year, Lesmes has had two substitutes in the presidency of the CGPJ –Rafael Mozo and now Vicente Guilarte–, while that of the Supreme Court is held by the most senior judge, Francisco Marín. And one of the consequences of the political blockade is the damage caused to the image of judicial independence.
But political positions are bitter. The PP maintains its categorical refusal to renew the twenty members through an agreement with the PSOE within the framework of the current legislation. The popular ones have set their discourse on the matter, and defend that the law that governs the system of election of members of the CGPJ must be modified because it does not comply with European standards of judicial independence. Currently, the members are elected by the chambers with a three-fifths majority. For the part of the members who come from the judicial career, there is a preselection that goes mainly through the judicial associations, which provide a list of possible candidates.
The European Union has demanded the modification of the law, although it has warned that the situation of persistent blockage of the Judiciary in Spain, which has lasted for almost five years, cannot continue. The message is clear: first renew, then reform. The PSOE has offered a commitment to renew and then negotiate a possible reform. However, the PP is not trusting, say sources from this party. In this mutual distrust the situation perpetuates itself.
Parliamentary sources recognize that now the situation is in limbo while there is no investiture. Sánchez is negotiating with the pro-independence parties the approval of an amnesty law that would shelve all judicial cases linked to the process, including that of former president Carles Puigdemont. The PP has demonstrated against this future law, and party sources emphasize that its approval would make any agreement with the PSOE to unblock the Judiciary even more difficult, if possible. In fact, the judges’ body fears that if Feijóo believes that Sánchez’s new mandate may be short-lived, he will keep his hand and leave the situation as it is, with the hope of coming to power and being able to reform the organic law of the Judiciary (LOPJ).
While Feijóo keeps the rope taut, unrest increases in the Supreme Court and hopelessness in the CGPJ. Furthermore, the recent ruling by the Constitutional Court that gives support to the reform of the LOPJ promoted by the PSOE and Podemos has been another bucket of cold water for both the Judiciary and the PP, although neither of them were taken by surprise.
In 2021, the PSOE chose to modify the law to prevent the CGPJ from making magistrate appointments while it is in office. The plan was that this asphyxiation would force the PP to renew the body, with a conservative majority and whose mandate expired in December 2018.
The reform has caused a collapse in the Supreme Court, where the trickle of retirements is incessant and the magistrates cannot be replaced. A third of the seats on the highest court are unoccupied, with the consequence of a significant decrease in sentences to be handed down, which can reach a thousand fewer each year. Some members of the court hoped that the TC would declare the reform unconstitutional and the places could be recovered and normality returned.
The last problem is the one that affects military jurisdiction. In its case, the appointment of its members depends on the CGPJ and currently 45% are unemployed, according to sources from the body. The Council is now looking for a solution to try to fill them with substitutes due to the risk of paralysis of their operation due to lack of members who make up the military courts.
