The Government has decided to take a new turn on its own strategy to overcome the blockade of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and try to renew a third of the Constitutional Court in July and thus change the majority, from conservative to progressive.
The PSOE will present this Friday a bill, which will be processed urgently, to allow the Government to elect the two magistrates that it must appoint as members of the court of guarantees and the Judiciary, both of its own.
The norm, according to
Eldiario.es
and EL PAÍS has confirmed, it will allow the CGPJ, even while it is in office, to make the appointments.
If this spin succeeds in unlocking renewal, the most likely outcome is that three progressive and one conservative judges will be elected.
Two progressives at the proposal of the Government, and one and one as a consensus agreement within the CGPJ.
The majority change would therefore be consolidated by a 7-5 in favor of the progressives - the opposite of what there is now - until the next renewal.
The counter-reform planned by the PSOE, which would modify article 570 bis of the Organic Law 6/1985 of the Judicial Power, supposes a rectification to the measure that the socialists themselves approved more than a year ago to force the PP to renew the Judicial Power, something that has not happened.
United We Can, a partner of the Government, does not support this legal change in principle because it believes that it means agreeing with the PP without the conservative formation having moved to unlock the renewal of the Judiciary.
The minority group in the coalition was betting on the solution that the socialist sector was also handling last week, as the minister of the presidency and main person in charge of this matter, Félix Bolaños, said on Cadena SER: that the government directly appoint the two magistrates that correspond to him if the PP continued to drag on.
The Executive had already undone another previous reform, which it promoted so that the General Council of the Judiciary could be renewed only with the absolute majority of Congress.
Faced with criticism from the opposition, from judicial sectors and especially from the European Commission, the Government withdrew that reform and opted for another, the one that prevented the CGPJ from making appointments, which has finally turned against it and now it is also rectifying.
At the origin of all these forward and backward movements is the PP's decision not to renew the Judiciary for three and a half years.
Again, as happened with the last partial renewal of the Constitutional Court, when the PSOE and United We Can agree to vote for a magistrate as controversial as Enrique Arnaldo,
If in the end it does not have the support of United We Can or other allies of the majority, that counter-reform could only go ahead with the votes of the PP.
The initiative supposes a parliamentary solution full of risks that leaves the PSOE in a very tight situation although it would allow it to renew the Constitutional Court so that during the next few years there will be an absolute majority of progressive magistrates, who will have to deal with such delicate matters as the abortion law .
The PP, in any case, should support a rule that is in line with what it has claimed in recent weeks.
The popular ones demanded to withdraw this law before beginning to renew the Judicial Power.
An agreement between the PSOE and the PP to renew the four members of the Constitutional Court could open the door to a future renewal of the Judiciary.
Nevertheless,
Moncloa has decided on this change without notifying the PP, according to sources in this party.
The conservative formation is upset by not having received any communication from the Government after the election day in Andalusia last Sunday.
The main opposition party also assures that the Executive has not contacted to negotiate judicial or economic agreements, nor to talk about the next NATO summit.
The renewal of the constitutional bodies has become a very long game of chess between the two great parties, PSOE and PP, in which the popular have kept the General Council of the Judiciary blocked for almost an entire legislature.
On June 12, the mandate of four of the 12 members of the court of guarantees expired, whose renewal corresponds to the Executive (two) and the governing body of the judges (two others).
As published by EL PAÍS, the Constitutional Court was preparing to block the Government's intention to appoint two of the magistrates of the body without waiting for the General Council of the Judiciary to be able to choose the two that it should appoint in the next renewal of the maximum interpreter of the Magna Carta.
Finally, the Executive has chosen another way.
The PP, in an absolutely unprecedented way, has blocked the General Council of the Judiciary for almost an entire legislature.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and his direct negotiators in this matter —at this time, Félix Bolaños, Minister of the Presidency— tried everything with Pablo Casado.
The pact was practically closed twice, and at the last moment the PP leader backed down due to pressure from the conservative world.
The negotiations returned after the appointment of Alberto Núñez Feijóo as popular president, but for the moment they have not advanced, almost three months after his meeting with Sánchez in La Moncloa.
The Government's decision was expected after the Andalusians on Sunday, as has happened.
The Constitutional Court took advantage of the visit of the European Commissioner for Values and Transparency, Vera Jourová, on June 16 to pronounce on the need for an agreement between the Government and the PP to be reached shortly for its renewal.
Through the president of the court, Pedro González-Trevijano, and with the vice president, Juan Antonio Xiol, the court of guarantees underlined that both have agreed with the European commissioner that in the process of changing four magistrates the Constitution must be complied with "in a complete”, an expression that alludes to the fact that the legal provision is that the Constitutional Court be renewed every three years by thirds.
One day later, four former justice ministers — former socialist ministers Juan Fernando López Aguilar and Juan Carlos Campo,
