Pedro Sánchez has accused the PP of maintaining "an obstructionist attitude, of not doing everything" and has urged its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to comply with the agreements already signed, such as the one published this Tuesday by EL PAÍS for which the PP and the PSOE promised to reform the organic law of the Judiciary to unblock the appointments of judges in the Constitutional Court.
“There are no precedents in Europe or in the democratic history of our country for a blockade like the one taking place in the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ).
That is why I call for constitutional loyalty and responsibility.
I ask the main opposition party to comply with what was signed, with the law and with the Constitution, because the Constitution must be complied with from the first to the last of the articles, not those that interest you”, he stressed.
The President of the Government, visiting the island of La Palma this Tuesday almost a year after the eruption of the volcano, has urged the PP to resume negotiations as soon as possible.
"We are willing to renew the General Council of the Judiciary tomorrow as the Constitution and the law send us."
The president has confirmed the existence of the agreement signed in October 2021 by the then general secretary of the popular party, Teodoro García Egea, and the minister of the Presidency and member of the socialist executive, Félix Bolaños.
For him, the PP and the PSOE promised to promote a "reform of the organic law of the Judiciary to unblock the appointment of the magistrates of the Constitutional Court caused by the non-renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary."
It was, according to negotiation sources, a "safeguard" because then both parties had already advanced the agreement to renew the entire CGPJ - they only lacked two names out of 20-.
To questions from this newspaper,
Alberto Núñez Feijóo's team disassociated itself from those pacts signed by the previous leadership of the party and describes them as "political trickery".
Sánchez has asked the popular ones to abandon their “blockade” attitude to renew the governing body of the judges, whose mandate has expired for 1,351 days due to lack of agreement between the main parties.
The PP has admitted this Tuesday that the pact published by EL PAÍS exists as it has been published.
Pedro Rollán, Deputy Secretary for Regional and Local Coordination of the PP, assured at a press conference at the Genoa headquarters that "at no time" have they doubted the existence of the document, but he insisted that it was the Government that did not it gave value because until now "nobody, not even the president himself, made reference to a previously signed document."
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The PP agreed with the PSOE to reform the law of the Judiciary in autumn 2021
According to the PP, the Government is carrying out an exercise in “political trilerism” by now alluding to that document, which it did not give “rank of validity”, because if it had done so, it had previously demanded that the PP comply with what was signed.
The new direction of the popular ones assures that when the conversations were resumed after the arrival of Feijóo, the two parties began "with a blank sheet of paper."
Government sources, however, assure that the PP of Feijóo had the document and that at first they conveyed their intention to proceed with the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary.
According to their account, they spoke of the pact and the renewal of the governing body of the judges and demanded its fulfillment "repeatedly."
The popular interlocutors were Cuca Gamarra, parliamentary spokesperson, and Esteban González Pons, who has assumed the area of Justice in the organic structure of the party.
The meetings and telephone conversations were discreet, add the same sources, precisely to try to guarantee the success of the negotiations.
Everything seemed channeled, they say, until the PP "changed its position."
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez (second from the right), together with the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, and the President of the Cabildo de La Palma, Mariano Hernández (on the left), this Tuesday during his visit to the works of the new highway in the north, known as the La Costa (Tazacorte) highway. Fernando Calvo / Moncloa
The conservative formation maintains that it continues to reach out to the Government to negotiate again, but at the same time it recognizes that it does not trust Sánchez.
The publicity of the pact written by the previous leadership has further clouded the already battered relations between the Executive and the main opposition party.
Sources from the popular leadership interpret that La Moncloa "filters" the document now because it "does not want to agree with the PP".
The Judges for Democracy association has urged Feijóo's party to unblock the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary and the Constitutional Court.
Edmundo Rodríguez Achútegui, a member of the group, declared: “Today it was announced by EL PAÍS that there was an agreement to do so.
The Popular Party refuses to comply with the constitutional requirement due to an unacceptable partisan interest.
He acts with enormous irresponsibility by failing to comply with the Constitution and conveying the message that he will only attend to the legal norms if they are reformed to his liking.
More than fifteen different excuses have been put forward for not renewing and continuing to prolong this situation that diminishes the quality of our democracy”.
For the association, the current blockade supposes a "kidnapping of the basic institutions for the functioning of the rule of law".
Government for the entire legislature
On the other hand, Sánchez has shown his discomfort with publications that assure that he is preparing a government crisis.
“News of things that I have not even thought about is published.
I appeal to the media to inform, not speculate, because it is not in my plans to make any government crisis.
I think this is information that is published so that I respond and say that there is no government crisis and the image is transmitted that this is not a stable government.
But I am extraordinarily proud of the work of all the ministers... One thing is to inform and another to intoxicate, with news, because this does not have to do with truthful information, but with intoxications”.
On his tenth visit to the island since the volcano began to spew lava, Sánchez, who is spending his holidays in Lanzarote, has met with the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias;
the president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres;
the president of the Cabildo de La Palma, Mariano Zapata, and the Government delegate on the islands, Anselmo Pestana.
There he has announced the implementation of a surveillance, measurement and control network for toxic gas emissions in Puerto Naos and La Bombilla, with an investment of three million euros to mitigate any harmful effect on the population.
He has also reported that the Council of Ministers next Tuesday will approve the creation of a National Public Health Center "to be more prepared and protected against the consequences of any community-transmitted disease."
The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres (left), talks with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, during his visit to La Palma, this Tuesday. Estefanía Briganty (Europa Press)