First formal meeting between the new Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, and the Acting President of the General Council of the Judicial Power (CGPJ), Vicente Guilarte. As soon as he assumed this portfolio, the holder of the branch began his round of contacts with the highest representative of the Judiciary in an attempt to achieve the renewal of the body of judges as soon as possible.
During the meeting, both agreed on the need to renew “as soon as possible” this institution, which has been in operation since December 2018.
In public statements, Bolaños argued that “it cannot occur to anyone that if it persists (the blockade) it is not doing harm”, both to the Justice and to the country. That’s why he indicated that his “goal” as Minister of Justice is for “the CGPJ to regain its prestige and give it back the institutional normality it should never have lost”.
For his part, Guilarte is also betting on a quick renewal. This lawyer by profession and designated by the PP as a member of the Council has been acting president since July, replacing Rafael Mozo, who retired and who in turn had replaced Carlos Lesmes after his resignation. The current president offered yesterday to mediate between the two parties to achieve the renewal “this year”, although he warned that he is not an “agent” with capacity for renewal because he only depends on Parliament.
The acting president claimed that the political tension created by the amnesty law, currently in parliamentary processing, does not affect the renewal. “It has nothing to do, at least from the Council. As far as I am concerned, it is foreign and I have the best aspirations that this is renewed”, he warned in public statements.
Shortly before Bolaños arrived at the CGPJ headquarters to meet with Guilarte, Sumar, a member of the PSOE Government, filed a complaint with the Supreme Court against nine members, including the president, for their statement against the amnesty law before it is approved. The party led by the Vice President of the Central Government, Yolanda Díaz, accuses these members of the governing body of judges of committing an alleged crime of administrative misconduct, which entails disqualification from holding public office, to promote a resolution “il ·legal”, “arbitrary” and which exceeds the competences of the CGPJ.
Bolaños wanted to disassociate himself from the complaint, assuring that it is a decision by a political force “that is not the PSOE” and assured that his intention is to “build bridges” in this new stage in which he is in charge of the portfolio of Justice.
Guilarte went further and shortly before meeting with Bolaños he assured that the complaint filed by Díaz’s party is a “political maneuver” that “doesn’t make much sense” when “we are looking for forms of pacification, renewal and consensus” to renew the CGPJ.
One of the members of the body, José María Macías, went one step further and sent a letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, to explain the his concern for the “attempt of personal and moral annihilation” that this complaint entails.
The existing deadlock due to the lack of agreement between the PSOE and the PP has caused an extension of the body that already lasts five years. Due to the unsustainable situation, the president of the Council, Carlos Lesmes, submitted his resignation in October of last year in an attempt to get the two main parties to agree to renew the institution. Since the appointment of its members was by a three-fifths majority, it means that the two main parties need to agree on the list of members who will occupy the seats of the body.
The PP has repeatedly warned that with the current law it will not renew the Council because it considers that the system of electing members must be modified so that it is not Parliament that elects its members, but the judicial career itself for a greater judicial independence.
The European authorities see the renewal as urgent and, therefore, bet on applying the current rule and then reaching a consensus to reform the election system. Bolaños has already announced that one of his priorities will be to renew the Council as soon as possible to put an end to this situation. Currently, the body has a conservative majority. The pact that had been reached between the two parties when Juan Carlos Campo was minister was an equitable distribution between the two formations, but in the end it was not signed.
