Two days after the decision of the Supreme Court to annul the transfer of Traffic jurisdiction to Navarra, agreed by EH Bildu, became known, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has responded to the Abertzale coalition that his Executive will look for “other avenues ” to complete the change of hands of this competition, which other parties such as UPN have historically claimed. Specifically, the president has suggested that it could be done through a legal change, as the high court suggests.
Pedro Sánchez’s response came after a question from Mertxe Aizpurua, spokesperson for EH Bildu in Congress. The Abertzale representative has denounced that the Supreme Court’s decision represents an attack on self-government, sovereignty and forality. «An attack on the unanimous decision of the Parliament of Navarra and the will of the Navarrese and Spanish Government to transfer this competence. An attack therefore on the political and democratic will of Navarroa,” she indicated.
Aizpurua has also shown itself willing to seek “the solutions and mechanisms that are necessary to complete the transfer of this competence as soon as possible”, together with the Parliament and the Government of Navarra.
Pedro Sánchez, for his part, has responded that his Government “is studying how to proceed with the transfer” and has stressed that it will finally be completed, always “in dialogue with the Foral Government of Navarra.”
The head of the Executive, who has shown his respect for the Supreme Court’s ruling, has stressed that the court does not rule out that these powers can be transferred but rather “opens the door” for it to be done, but “by other means.”
Specifically, the high court points to a transfer via organic law or a reform of the Law of Reintegration and Improvement of the Foral Regime of Navarra, that is, passing through the Cortes Generales; However, it nullifies the option of the decree of the Council of Ministers, which was the mechanism used by the Government.
Pedro Sánchez, in addition, has taken advantage of his intervention to criticize the opposition for using this matter “in a tortuous manner” and to make it clear that the Government is not committed to the withdrawal of the Navarra Civil Guard but, on the contrary, has increased the force’s staff in that community by more than 6% since 2018.
In this sense, he recalled that former ‘popular’ president José María Aznar also committed to this transfer and that, in addition, the now leader of the PP requested the same for Galicia in 2012, when he was at the head of the Xunta.
The Government of Spain agreed in November 2022 with EH Bildu to close the transfer of Traffic to Navarra in exchange for its support for the 2023 General Budgets, thus fulfilling a historic demand of most of the parties represented in the Parliament of Navarra . The Traffic jurisdiction, not in vain, had been managed by the Provincial Council of Navarra until 1962, when the Franco Government decided that the Civil Guard would take care of this matter. Before, during the Civil War, the Public Order delegates had also temporarily assumed this competence, which would return to the hands of the Provincial Council in 1942.
The Justice for the Civil Guard association (JUCIL), however, appealed that transfer, which was annulled by the Supreme Court this week. In Aizpurua’s opinion, the Supreme Court’s decision shows that once again the judicial power, hand in hand with the Civil Guard, has become “a political instrument against the majority interests and at the service of the most authoritarian and centralizing sectors.”
