The inability of PSOE and PP to renew the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), with the mandate having expired five years ago, has all the signs of becoming, once again, the main battlehorse between the Government and the opposition, which They accuse each other of a blockade that has not been able to be undone even under the auspices of the European Union.
In his project for “democratic regeneration” after five days of reflection, Pedro Sánchez has once again put on the table, without further specification, the possibility of a reform that reduces the qualified majority of three-fifths required by the organic law of the Judiciary. , and that forces the two major parties to agree in Congress on new appointments, with a simple majority, within the reach of the investiture forces.
That is the formula, discarded at the time due to the objections raised by the European Union, which the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, insists on, who accused the head of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, on Tuesday of wanting to control the judges. and yesterday, on May Day, he gave another twist by pointing out that the PP has placed itself “on the outside of pre-constitutionalism” and is “absolutely kidnapped by the extreme right.”
But the popular ones believe that a change in the system of electing the governing body of judges to leave it in the hands of the simple majority of a very fragmented legislative power and divided into two irreconcilable blocks by the “wall” for or against the Government represents an attack on the rule of law that would place Spain at the level of Poland, where the executive of the illiberal PiS, previous to the current one, tried to subdue the judiciary and was sanctioned by the European institutions.
In this context, the general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, yesterday from Logroño stressed the terms expressed by Feijóo the day before in Congress, when he deployed the popular counteroffensive against the “populist drift” of the President of the Government, and assured that any “ threat” or attempt to “control the judicial power” will find “against the PP, Spanish society and Europe.” Although, in any case, he did not consider everything lost: “The PP is within a framework of dialogue and negotiation in which the European Commission, the European institutions, participate, which we must not forget are the maximum umbrella and the maximum protection and guarantee of the rule of law in our country.”
“And we are going to be there and we are going to continue there, defending the need for renewal, but with guarantees,” stated the leader of the PP, who, in addition to community protection, appealed to mobilization in the streets: “Let them not no doubt”.
For her part, the spokesperson for the PSOE, Esther Peña, came out against this new front with the PP due to the dysfunctional paralysis of the CGPJ to remind the main opposition party that complying with the Constitution “is always a good idea.” and that this institutional body has already gone 1,969 days without renewing after several fruitless approaches. The last ones, between Félix Bolaños, Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, and the vice-secretary of institutional action of the PP, Esteban González Pons, who met, with the mediation of the former Commissioner of Justice of the European Union Didier Reynders , but they were equally unsuccessful.
From Lerma (Burgos), Peña lowered the exalted tone of the second vice president and Minister of Labor and asked “please” the PP to agree to renew the CGPJ as dictated by the Magna Carta, although, ultimately, he stated, it is Parliament, in which popular sovereignty resides, which “has the say,” so Congress “has a lot to say in this possible modification in the renewal.” Even so, the socialist spokesperson was conciliatory and said she was in favor of the renewal being carried out “as is the norm today” before the legislative change, that is, with the acquiescence of the PP.
In this sense, Peña reiterated that it is an “irresponsibility” attributable to the opposition that the power body of the judges has not been renewed since Sánchez arrived at Moncloa.
