Friday, March 29

Sánchez already wants control of the TC


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The Government’s urgent proposal to ensure a similar ideological majority in the Constitutional Court is a desperate attempt to further politicize the institution, and the umpteenth maneuver to manipulate legal provisions for the convenience of the left. Criteria of opportunism and control of the institutions prevail as a reactive response to a vitiated legislature atmosphere for the PSOE due to the result of the Andalusian elections. In addition, it is an improvised legislative offensive in exactly the opposite direction to the one approved by the majority of the left in its day to handcuff the General Council of the Judiciary, vetoing it from making appointments where there are already more than 60 already on the waiting list. In this way, Pedro Sánchez sells as an institutional release what is nothing more than a selective authorization to the CGPJ to strictly make the appointments that interest Moncloa in the TC.

The twelve magistrates of the TC are renewed by quarters every three years. The mandate of four of the current magistrates expired on June 12. Four are renewed by Congress, four by the Senate, and of the final four –the current round of renewal- two are appointed directly by the Government and another two by the CGPJ. But having curtailed any appointment of new positions thanks to the law approved by Sánchez, the CGPJ could not propose new councilors for the TC either. On his day, Sánchez acted in this way for fear that the conservative sector, the majority in the CGPJ, would take over the appointments of decisive judicial positions in the Supreme Court or the higher courts.

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That is why Sánchez is now rectifying with the intention of giving the TC an ideological turnaround for several years, securing three of the four seats at stake. The first consequence was the reaction of Alberto Núñez Feijóo warning that Sánchez thus breaks any possible bridge of negotiation to renew the CGPJ, which has been in extension for three years. But Sánchez does not want to negotiate any institutional renewal with the PP, but rather impose his quotas, pushing the law itself to the limit, even if it is at the cost of contradicting himself.

Sánchez does so in a hurry after his electoral failures. Moncloa seeks an accumulation of power in the largest possible number of institutions –this is an accelerated case similar to that of Indra-, and incidentally, to distribute positions among related parties as soon as possible. If this renewal were to bear fruit, the Government would thus guarantee itself the possibility of maintaining a progressive majority even in the event that the PP wins the general elections, and from there block future renewals in the same way as is happening now.

In a political key, the movement is a crooked and arbitrary shortcut and damages the credibility of justice. The Minister of the Presidency Félix Bolaños is aware that Carmen Calvo was struck down for her inability to twist the arm of the TC during their debates on the state of alarm. That is why Moncloa acts more expeditiously twisting the law. In addition, he is assuming that the CGPJ will agree on two candidates and that the TC itself will endorse the suitability of the four. But what if it isn’t? The progressive members do not have the necessary votes in the CGPJ to propose candidates and need the conservative majority. And given the existing tension, it is not easy for the Government to emerge victorious.

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Under these conditions of the Government, Carlos Lesmes should never take this issue to a vote in the CGPJ because the executive branch steals an independent debate from the judiciary. The TC would also do well to resolve once and for all the appeal of unconstitutionality against that Sánchez reform that prohibited the CGPJ from making appointments, because that sentence is the vault key to avoid this abuse. Abuse, on the other hand, that Sánchez needs to negotiate with the independentists, nationalists and anti-system parties, who will want to place their own magistrate on the TC.

The regeneration of Justice is an urgent requirement of democratic hygiene. And this criterion affects the PSOE and the PP equally because both contribute in an identical way to discredit and manipulate the institutions. This, without a loyal state pact, is no longer acceptable.

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