The Supreme Court denounces the collapse of the Contentious Chamber if there is no renewal of the Judicial Power

Carlos Lesmes, on the left, congratulates Javier Borrego during his inauguration as magistrate of the Litigation Chamber, in 2018.FERNANDO ALVARADO / EFE

The Supreme Court has raised a voice of alarm.

In an unprecedented statement, its Government Chamber warned this Monday of the "serious" consequences that the maintenance of the lack of renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) may entail due to the impossibility of appointing judicial positions and filling the vacancies that they occur in that judicial body.

The prohibition of the appointment of magistrates to fill vacancies, which is derived from a legal reform motivated by the blockade of the PP in the renewal, can lead to the collapse of some organs of the Supreme Court.

And the Government Chamber of the court has wanted to raise its voice for once to warn of the consequences of the current blockade, which especially affects the Third Chamber of the Contentious-administrative, which must decide, among other matters, on the legality or not of the pardon granted to the pro-independence leaders condemned in the trial of the

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Twelve vacancies

The concern in the Supreme Court - with five chambers and 80 magistrates - has grown as the months have passed. Retirements are happening and also several deaths. This situation has already caused 12 vacancies, which represents a risk of slowing down work, or an overload of affairs, since it works with 15% less of its workforce.

Although in all the rooms they look with concern to the future in the face of the PP's refusal to negotiate the renewal if there are no guarantees to change the law before, only the Contentious-Administrative Chamber has a greater problem. Of the 12 vacancies this year, half correspond to the Third Chamber, which resolves appeals against the acts of the Government, a key room for the operation of the rule of law in Spain. The Criminal Chamber, which judges the corruption of parties and institutions, has no casualties.

In the Contentious-Administrative Chamber, where appointments are more urgent, there are now six vacancies, which in April of next year will have increased to eight. The statistics of this chamber reveal that each magistrate dictates an average of 80 or 90 sentences per year. "It's outrageous," says one of them, who uses comparative data to explain the situation. "In France," he says, "our counterparts issue an average of 30 or 40 sentences a year." Increasing productivity, in short, does not look very viable.

This chamber has six sections, each with a minimum of five magistrates. The president of the quinta, Segundo Menéndez, who has to decide on the appeals against the pardons to the pro-independence leaders, will retire next April. When it is the turn of this matter, that section may not have an incumbent president. If a magistrate from another chamber, or from another section, joins, he probably has a different specialization. The Judicial Power is considering sending magistrates of the Military Chamber, specialists in contentious-administrative and criminal matters, as an emergency solution to solve this problem.

"It is not the most convenient for a cardiologist to deal with a multiple fracture," says a magistrate by way of example about the situations that may occur.

And he adds: "In the same way, it is not the most appropriate for a tax law specialist to resolve an issue on urban planning or fundamental rights."

The 'Dolores Delgado case'

Another matter of special relevance that this Chamber has pending refers to the challenge of the appointment of the prosecutor and former Minister of Justice and former socialist deputy Dolores Delgado as State Attorney General.

The matter will be addressed in a deliberation already called for next October 19.

The president of the Chamber, César Tolosa, will preside over the debate.

There was an attempt to bring the case to full session, but it has not been successful.

All of this explains the peremptory terms of the statement approved this Monday by the Supreme Government Chamber, which at the request of its elected members, unanimously agreed to address the General Council of the Judiciary “showing its concern about the harmful consequences, as serious in the near future and that foreseeably will increase, which for the operation of the Court implies the lack of renewal of the governing body of the Judiciary and the consequent impossibility of filling existing vacancies such as those that may arise in the coming months ".

Alarm voice

Some of the members of the Government Chamber have long wanted to raise a voice of alarm. He let some time pass, because in the Supreme he does not have a great fondness for conflicts. At the beginning of the judicial year, at the beginning of this month, they wanted to wait to verify the effects of the speech with which the president of the Supreme Court, Carlos Lesmes, opened the judicial year. In this intervention, he already linked the lack of renewal of the Council with possible risks to judicial independence. But in view of the fact that nothing seems to move in relation to the unblocking of the renewal of the Council, the Government Chamber - headed by the President of the Supreme Court and made up of the presidents of its five Chambers,plus five other magistrates elected by his colleagues on the court - has decided not to wait any longer and denounce the situation of instability in which his work will take place if the situation that prevents updating his staff continues to worsen.

The statement has been promoted by the elected members of the Government Chamber to make it clear that it responds to a movement "from the base," in the expression of another magistrate. The text represents, in short, the general feeling in the Supreme. The agreement indicates that some of the affected rooms “are at a juncture in which it is more urgent, from the legal and also social point of view (let's think about the vicissitudes in the labor world of the pandemic), to resolve with the greatest agility possible some of the issues that they have raised and that will foreseeably continue to arise "and adds that," aside from issues of another order that do not concern it ", the Government Chamber" cannot remain indifferent to these worrying forecasts and must warn about they".

The Government Chamber also agreed to entrust a report to the Technical Cabinet of the court “that summarily reflects and with a calendar setting the panorama that the various Chambers of this Court would face in the event that the current interim situation of the General Council were to continue. of the Judicial Power ”.

Now, the First Chamber (of the Civil) of the Supreme Court has one vacancy, the Third Chamber (of the Contentious-Administrative) with six, the Fourth Chamber (of the Social) with three and the Fifth Chamber (of the Military) with two.