06/18/2020 - 15:55
- Clarín.com
- Politics
"Don't cry, che. They are being paid, the Christmas bonus is being paid now. And the July salary will also be paid in full. Let's see. Have a little more faith in driving and in the wrist. They can't be so crybaby . And the Court is not going to throw a mango in the fucking life, ”maintains the viralized voice in the WhatsApp chats of several judges. Her actor? The chamberlain Alberto Lugones, president of the Council of the Magistracy , who clarifies to his addressees that they will only be able to count on the money of the anti-cyclical fund that the Court has when "there is a different majority" in the highest court.
Lugones presides over the body that is in charge of selecting and integrating the short list of candidates to occupy national courts and sanction their discipline. He has chaired the Council since February, when he was elected as representative of the Celestial List of the Association of Magistrates, akin to the ruling party. Before that, Lugones had been one of the original adherents of the ultra K Justicia Legítima group.
In recent weeks the judge starred in several controversies for his delays in responding to the federal oral courts that are in charge of corruption cases in Kirchnerism, which asked the Council for technological help to continue with online hearings for the duration of the quarantine.
To the TOF 2, which judges Cristina Kirchner for the direction of the Santa Cruz public road work towards the Lázaro Báez companies, he replied that he should wait for other 300 requests to be answered beforehand, which had previously reached the Council or were considered "most urgent". When the members of the Tribunal objected to that decision, and the issue reached the media, Lugones surprised again, telling them that he would have preferred that the claim had been kept in reserve.
As administrator of the budget of the Judiciary -except for the small fraction that the Court directly manages for its expenses- the Council of the Magistracy is the body to which all complaints arrive to cover salary and material needs of national courts and tribunals.
With a fall in own income caused by the reduction of activities by the extraordinary judicial fair triggered by the coronavirus, and wage increases committed since last year, the Magistracy asked the Court to transmit to the government a request for 4,000 million pesos to be able to pay the salaries and bonuses. The number necessary to cover the needs until the end of the year is four times larger.
The highest court did not respond to that request, which was accompanied by another: that the same Court collaborate with a shipment of funds from its savings, deposited in an anti-cyclical fund whose value would be around 30,000 million pesos.
In this context, Lugones sent his controversial audio: “Don't cry, che. They are being paid, the Christmas bonus is being paid now. And the July salary will also be paid in full . Let's see. Have a little more faith in driving and in the wrist. They can't be so crybaby. And the Court is not going to throw a mango in the fucking life ”, maintains the judge.
"I think the only thing that can go away is to cover the expenses we made for supplies for the health, hygiene and all the other things that were approved in the last days. That is going to be approved. It is the only thing they are going to give. Then forget it. Forget it. Forget about it. The Court has that, I don't know why, but it does. It will be necessary to change the ministers of the Court, that there is a different majority and, consequently, with a different majority, they will be able to dispose of the capital that they have saved and the interests, so that it is productive for the Judicial Power, ”he concludes. The amount that the Court actually "released" to buy hygiene and cleaning supplies due to the pandemic, was 40 million pesos.
