Pablo Casado agreed to unblock the renewal of the Constitutional Court and other pending institutions such as the Court of Accounts, the Ombudsman and the Data Protection Agency, after a conversation with the president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the Supreme Court, Carlos Lesmes, in the act of October 12. Both coincided in the celebration of the National Holiday in the Paseo de la Castellana and Lesmes took the opportunity to insist to the president of the PP that this update should be undertaken.
In his opening speech of the judicial year last September he had already publicly warned that the situation was “unsustainable” and in the urgency of unlocking. And in recent years he has been constant in his demand, both in public and in private, that the Constitution be complied with and the institutions be renewed. But Casado refuses to agree to a new CGPJ as long as the Government does not agree to a change in the law to give more power to the judges in the election of its members.
To try to save this castling, different judicial sources confirm to this newspaper that it was Lesmes who “advised” to start with the rest of the institutions pending, as a preliminary step to reach a subsequent agreement on the General Council of the Judiciary, which the Popular Party continues to reject.
Lesmes “has influenced”
The different members of the Judiciary consulted by this newspaper recall that it is not the first time that Lesmes has tried to convince the leaders of the PP and the PSOE to unblock the negotiations: “The authority of the president of the CGPJ has influenced when putting that solution on the table. I am convinced that this has been the case ”, defends one of the members of the governing body of the judges, who prefers not to reveal his name.
This member, elected within the quota of the Popular Party, assures that the also president of the Supreme Court is a “very accessible” man who has received in his office all the political leaders who have requested it: “It cannot be said that the president is alien. On the contrary, it has played an important role ”, he concludes.
And as proof of the relevance that Carlos Lesmes would have had in the reactivation of the agreement between the PSOE and the PP, the aforementioned member says that “it is evident” that his opinions “have penetrated” the opinion of Pablo Casado, to whom he would have communicated the convenience of detaching the renewal of the CGPJ from the rest of the constitutional bodies, but also that of promoting a legislative change so that the members of the Judiciary are elected in accordance with the regulations required by the European Union, that is, by the judges and magistrates themselves . A third member of the CGPJ has confirmed to this writing that one day before the Lesmes mediation the positions between the Socialists and the conservative formation were still very far apart.
It was fundamental
The intervention of the president of the Supreme Court in this regard during his meeting with Casado on 12-O, also assures the political sources consulted, it was fundamental. And it is what led the president of the PP to offer this exit to Pedro Sánchez only a few hours later, in his speech the next day in Congress during the control session. The Prime Minister picked up the glove and the Minister of the Presidency, Felix BolañosHe announced publicly that he would contact the PP.
The thaw between popular and socialists had a prelude that same Monday, at the launch party of this newspaper. Bolaños and the secretary general of the PP, Teodoro Garcia Egea, they saw each other at the opening ceremony from The newspaper of Spain and they addressed precisely this question. Despite the bad relations between the Executive and the leadership of the PP – Sánchez and Casado did not even say hello on October 1 – Bolaños and García Egea showed at that time that their dialogue is much more fluid than what is publicly transcendent.
They have been the ones who have closed the agreement in record time. On Wednesday morning Casado raised this option and in the afternoon the minister and the general secretary of the PP were already meeting. They were in Congress until eight o’clock in the afternoon and continued with the negotiations at night through messages. Thursday first thing in the morning they met again in the Chamber and very shortly afterwards it was announced that there was consensus.
An extreme situation
While waiting to see if this agreement can lead to another on the CGPJ, the intervention of Lesmes and his Council to start with the rest of the pending bodies achieves at least unblock some of the chaos in the judicial dome. The lack of political agreement between the PSOE and PP parliamentary groups, necessary to achieve a constitutional majority of three fifths, and the entry into force of the legislative amendment that limits the Council to appoint vacant positions, has led to the Constitutional and the Supreme Court to an extreme situation.
Four magistrates of the Constitutional Court have completed their mandate and in July another four judges complete their mandate. Two are chosen by the Government and two by the CGPJ, if it is in a position to do so. This situation has clouded the atmosphere in the court of guarantees, in which to the accumulation of resources before practically all the decisions of the Government adds the unease of the magistrates who could run for the presidency. This explains the difficulty finding unanimity in the last deliberations.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.