The acting president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Vicente Guilarte, does not miss the opportunity to come out in defense of the judges and condemn both the mention of ‘lawfare’, the insults of the Junts spokespersons, as well as the intention to bring members of the judicial career to testify before investigative commissions.
This time it was during the ceremony of the XVI awards of the Justice and Disability Forum of the CGPJ. In his speech, the president of the governing body of judges has once again insisted that the tension surrounding the Judiciary must be reduced.
In reference to the interventions of some parliamentary spokespersons, he warned that “we are not indecent” and added: “I would like not to hear it again because these words showed infinite contempt for the dignity of people, designating those who have not done but to comply with the demands of the established constitutional order.”
“When from the Tribune that the State provides them to defend their proposals they despise us, when they insult us, when they wrong us, when they offend us, they are doing it to a large majority of people who have placed their trust in the judicial system. And all of this disrupts the defense of the entrusted interests, logically also the help to people with disabilities in all its aspects,” he added. “I believe that begging for this verbal escalation to stop is not an interference in their functions but a defense of ours,” he concluded.
Guilarte has welcomed the recognition by the Government that judges have no obligation to attend commissions of inquiry and has added that these statements, “defended at another time and scenario, perhaps would have avoided expressing the disturbing Anglicism – in reference to the lawfare – in any document and, surely, we would have avoided the tensions that we have experienced.”
Guilarte refers to the investiture agreement between the PSOE and Junts signed on November 9, in which for the first time mention was made of ‘lawfare’ and which has caused great discomfort in the judiciary.
“Please, do not disappoint us, insist on the complete line taken, which we will appreciate because in the awareness of its expressed uselessness, the call (of judges to these commissions) would not be understood, obedient then to goals that are not within my reach,” Guilarte stressed. .
The president of the body, who has been in office for five years, made himself available to the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, to help find a solution to ensure that the PP and PSOE reached an agreement to unblock the renewal of the Council. However, he has warned that if judges are allowed to go to commissions, it could abort “any possibility of agreement in the area at hand,” he concluded.
