Minimum agreement at the meeting between the president of the Spanish Government and the leader of the Popular Party. In reality, the pact is reduced to one point: the reform of article 49 of the Constitution, to replace the diminished term with that of person with disabilities, in accordance with the eternal demand of the associations that represent them.
The agreement will be specified in a joint law proposal, signed by the PSOE and the PP, which will be registered before December 31 and will be approved by Congress in January. Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo pledged not to admit any amendment that does not receive support from both parties, and not to hold any referendum on constitutional reform.
But with being important, since it is an old aspiration of people with disabilities, the president of the Spanish Government and the leader of the opposition surprised by agreeing to resume negotiations for the renewal of the General Council of the Judicial Power (CGPJ ). They will do so in accordance with a proposal from Feijóo, which was accepted by Sánchez.
It is a question of including in the negotiation, together with the Central Executive and the PP, a representative of the European Commission who will supervise that the recommendations of the EU for the renewal of the governing body of judges are complied with. But also deepening judicial independence, making, as Europe requires, judges to be elected by judges. The PP gives up waiting for a new law to proceed with the renewal and admits that this will achieve the current procedure. And the central government thus sees the door open to finally unblock this entangled controversy.
The PP had already polled the Commission, before making the proposal to Sánchez about this possibility, and the European institutions gave their approval.
It has not yet been designated who will be in charge of this supervision, although it is not ruled out that it will be the Commissioner of Justice, Didier Reynders, who will occupy this chair in the meetings, which will be held in Spain, and that there is no need whether in all
The mutual distrust between the Spanish Government and the PP led Feijóo to make this proposal. “If the partners of the Government do not trust the Government, it is very difficult for the opposition to trust them”, he alleged. So much so that the leader of the PP asked Sánchez to reflect on the possibility of changing the person who will represent him in the talks. The PP say that Minister Félix Bolaños deceived them in the previous negotiation, when he assured them, even in writing, that they would not repeal the sedition. But the President of the Central Government confirmed his Minister of the Presidency, and now also of Justice, as his representative in these talks. On behalf of the PP, Esteban Gónzález Pons will once again lead the negotiations.
The leader of the PP, in his appearance after the meeting in Congress, wanted to make it clear that European supervision has nothing to do with the international mediator used by the PSOE and Junts in their meetings in Geneva.
When we asked him how he justifies this figure, having been so critical of the Salvadoran auditor in the PSOE and Junts talks, Feijóo stressed that he understands “that they make similarities of this nature and I understand their suspicion”. “But I ask for respect for the European Commission – he claimed – because it is an institution to which we have transferred a good part of our sovereignty, and because equating the Commission with a Salvadoran mediator specializing in armed gangs seems to me a lack of respect in which neither the politicians nor the Spanish media can fall”.
On all the other points that Feijóo raised in writing, up to twelve, he assured that he got a negative answer. According to the leader of the PP, Sánchez refused to withdraw the amnesty law, to inform him of the PSOE and Junts meetings in Geneva, or to retract the motion of censure agreed with Bildu to expel the mayor from Pamplona, ??from UPN. He also refused, as Feijóo explained, to veto the proposals to remove from the Penal Code the glorification of terrorism, or to withdraw the appointments of the state attorney general, the president of the Council of State and the president of Eph.
Feijóo asked Sánchez for his intention to cede 100% of the taxes to Catalonia, after his meeting the day before with Pere Aragonès. But the president did not answer him or clarify the terms, so he deduced that there is that possibility.
Because of all this, and despite the progress, for Feijóo, “Spain has not been hit with the big one either, which is reserved for Sánchez’s partners and for independence”, he said, referring to the lottery draw of Christmas that was celebrated yesterday. The leader of the PP regretted that the meeting “responded to the expectations, which were few, and I got little out of it”. Because Sánchez, he lamented, “has no will to rectify”.
In Moncloa, on the other hand, they sang victory. They emphasized that “it is clear that Feijóo came with the desire to renew the CGPJ, because he had no more justifications or excuses”. “The PP was in an impasse, after commissioner Reynders rushed to renew first the CGPJ and then the reform of the organic law of the Judiciary”, as they warned.
Feijóo’s proposal to turn to a European mediator surprised Sánchez, because until now he had never proposed this formula and, instead, had fiercely attacked the figure of the international verifier for the PSOE and Junts talks. But the president accepted it immediately, to conclude the fight. “We accept the formula and start working, it’s very good news”, they celebrated in Moncloa.
The spokeswoman for the Spanish Government, Pilar Alegría, ratified from Moncloa what Feijóo had already said from Congress, and declared, several times, that the European Commission “will mediate and verify” in this negotiation with the PP to renew the CGPJ and reform the Law of the Judiciary. Alegria stressed that this agreement “is urgent to try to unblock once and for all” the renewal of the judges’ governing body, and also stressed that “anything to restore institutional normality and that the PP complies with the Constitution, it will be more than welcome”.
In Moncloa they categorically rejected the PP’s claim to try to exclude Minister Bolaños from this negotiation. According to sources from the Central Executive, talks can begin immediately, “before the end of the year”, between Bolaños and González Pons, firstly to agree on the mediator appointed by the European Commission. The Government has no problem with Commissioner Reynders or the Vice-President of the Commission, Vera Jourová, taking on this mediation task, as suggested by the PP.
“It is a good meeting point and starting point for the European Commission to play the role of mediator and verifier. It is positive if we clear up the institutional and constitutional anomaly in which we have been installed for more than five years”, highlighted Alegria.
Sources from the Spanish Executive emphasized that Bolaños and González Pons already agreed in October of last year on the names of the members and substitutes of the CGPJ, despite the fact that later Feijóo’s “legs were shaking” and he broke the agreement These same names think that they will be a good “starting point” in the search for the agreement.
And with regard to the reform of article 49 of the Constitution, the Spanish Government remembers that precisely Minister Bolaños also agreed it with the then spokesperson of the PP Cuca Gamarra in April, in line with the demand of the disability associations. The reform was already agreed, therefore, but in Moncloa they warn that it was once again the PP that stopped this one-off reform of the Constitution because Sánchez called for the advance of the general elections.
In Moncloa, in any case, they celebrate what they consider a change in Feijóo’s attitude, to be able to reach agreements: “We are delighted”, they congratulated each other.
