The judges are ready to go on strike on May 16, in the middle of the electoral campaign and at the gates of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union. Far from managing to calm the judicial crisis, the central government has to fight with the “perfect storm” that has caused the extreme situation of justice. First were the lawyers of the administration of justice, followed by the civil servants, ex-officio lawyers and now the judges and prosecutors, who suddenly believe that the Ministry of Justice has pushed them to go on strike that no one Does not want.
The reason for the stoppages is purely economic: 20 years of frozen wages with a reduction suffered in 2009 and which they have not recovered. Added to this is the general state of justice, with a lack of personnel and technical means that prolong judicial processes for years. This is the strike of ordinary judges, those who are in court every day, and it has nothing to do with the crisis affecting the judicial leadership, that is to say, the Supreme Court, presidencies of the superior courts of justice and the General Council on Judiciary
The judges feel abandoned and believe that now is the time to put pressure on the Executive to accept the demands before the elections come, because if they don’t they will overlap with the generals and they already calculate that in three years there won’t be any another window of opportunity.
The CGPJ itself has endorsed a report in which it supports the salary demands of judges and magistrates. The full body of the body has defended that “it is necessary to review and update the remunerations” and adapt them to the “quantitative and qualitative” principles set out in Law 15/2003 on the remuneration of judicial and fiscal careers and the Law on Power judicial
The associations calling the strike explain that, although the unrest in the race is unrelated to what is happening in the judicial dome, they understand that the tension within the judicial world and the attitudes of the main political parties, which are allowing the CGPJ to be in office since December 2018 and to be prevented from appointing magistrates of the High Court and presidencies of higher courts, which is causing further delays in judgments and worsening the image of justice .
Both from the majority Professional Association of the Magistrature (APM) and from Francisco de Vitoria remember that it is the politicians, and not the judges, who are causing this image of politicization of justice. That is why these associations defend a change in the model in the election of members of the body that regulates judges.
The situation is “unsustainable”, the convening associations acknowledge. In parallel with the salary situation of judges, courts like the Supreme are a powder room. The highest judicial body has said, both actively and passively, that it is on the verge of collapse due to the lack of magistrates, because it cannot elect substitutes for the vacancies after the parties that form the coalition government carried out a reform of the Judiciary Act to prevent the CGPJ from continuing to make appointments while in office.
And this, remember sources from the High Court, affects all citizens, who see their rights diminished with endless legal proceedings and now aggravated by the various strikes that are further delaying the deadlines for any judicial proceedings.
The Supreme Court is now relying on the Constitutional Court to alleviate, even partially, the situation and declare the reform unconstitutional so that appointments to the High Court can be made again, since both the PSOE and the PP have ruled out any agreement to renew the CGPJ before the general elections, despite the damage it does to both the administration of justice and the image of judicial independence.
