The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, assured in an interview with EL PAÍS published last Sunday that he did not have "the text" of the agreement between the PP and the PSOE to modify the organic law of the Judiciary, so that it could be unlocked. the appointment of magistrates of the Constitutional Court.
Asked if the party had even signed it, its leader since last April 1 said: “We don't have it.
I think a list was agreed, that's what they told me.
Nothing more".
The document, to which EL PAÍS has had access, is dated in Madrid on October 21, 2021 and signed by the then general secretary of the popular party, Teodoro García Egea, and the newly appointed secretary of constitutional reform and new rights in the executive of the PSOE, as well as Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños.
The text says:
“The PSOE and the PP” have “reached” an agreement so that both parliamentary groups jointly present a proposal for “reform of the organic law of the Judicial Power to unblock the appointment of the magistrates of the Constitutional Court caused by the non-renewal of the Council General of the Judicial Power” after “the election by the Chambers of all the new members of the Constitutional Court, Court of Accounts, Ombudsman and Spanish Agency for Data Protection” [the agreement on the latter institution was subsequently annulled].
But Feijóo's PP totally distances itself from those pacts signed by the previous leadership of the party and qualifies them as “political trickery”.
Heading of the agreement between the PP and the PSOE in October.
The signatures of Teodoro García Egea and Bolaños at the foot of the agreement from last October.
The objective of that agreement was, according to negotiating sources, to guarantee the renewal of the magistrates of the Constitutional Court while an agreement was still being sought to renew the General Council of the Judiciary.
“Everything is possible”, García Egea went so far as to say, “with the will and intention of yielding”.
In other words, to facilitate the global agreement, they cut it up, and in that long negotiation to renew the CGPJ —which has had an expired mandate for more than three years— government sources assure that they had to “eat” names that they did not like. they liked, like that of the lawyer Enrique Arnaldo, who had maintained fluid contact with former PP leaders singled out for corruption.
His appointment stung in the socialist ranks and in those of the Executive's coalition partner, United We Can.
The PSOE deputy Odón Elorza went so far as to say:
“It does not meet the conditions of exemplarity.
Many will vote with a nose clip.”
05:02
Interview with Alberto Núñez Feijóo
The president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, at the headquarters of the PP in Galicia, after an interview with EL PAÍS.
Photo: OSCAR CORRAL |
Video: EPV
That agreement, sources familiar with the negotiation both on the socialist side and on the PP agree, was designed not to be executed, as a "safeguard clause", because the pact to renew the entire CGPJ was almost done.
Of 20 names, they add, only two were missing.
Specifically, those proposed by Podemos —the PP rejected José Ricardo de Prada, one of the authors of the sentence in the
Gürtel case—
.
PP sources assure that they had agreed with the Government to change the law to reform the system and that "the judges choose the judges", but Executive sources strongly deny this, considering it a red line.
That formula, they explain, would consolidate a permanent conservative majority in the Council regardless of what the citizens voted for.
In reality, the PP and the PSOE had already been on the verge of reaching an agreement —which included De Prada— in 2018, but on that occasion it was frustrated when some
wasaps
were leaked in which the then spokesman for the popular in the Senate, Ignacio Cosidó, boasted in an internal chat of controlling the Supreme "from behind" thanks to the agreement.
But last February, the PP's internal war struck down its leader, Pablo Casado, and its secretary general, Teodoro García Egea.
Government sources assure that, before Feijóo was officially named president of the popular party —April 1—, but when it was already known that he was going to head the party, Bolaños met with Cuca Gamarra in Congress to address, among others, the agreements related to the renewal of the Constitutional and the CGPJ.
According to these sources, the PP parliamentary spokesperson had the agreement signed with García Egea and Feijóo's intention was to end the blockade that had prevented the judges' governing body from being renewed in a timely manner.
After the Seville congress in which the PP definitively buried Casado, the new leader of the PP went to La Moncloa to meet with Pedro Sánchez.
Both agreed to designate new interlocutors to continue with the negotiations.
The popular ones took a little longer than agreed to give their name, because, in fact, they did not appoint a Secretary of Justice, a position that Enrique López had held until then.
It was Esteban González Pons, named deputy secretary, who assumed that portfolio within the party.
On the socialist side, Bolaños continued.
From here, government sources maintain that González Pons knew and had the document of the previous agreement signed between Bolaños and García Egea and that he limited himself to asking for some time to speak with associations of judges.
Sources from the PP of Feijóo maintain, however, that neither Casado nor García Egea had sent them that document, that it was the Minister of the Presidency who showed it to them and that at that meeting they informed Bolaños that they wanted to start "negotiating zero” and that they were not going to participate in “the political trickery” that Casado’s team had agreed to.
"Just as a government does not feel bound by what the previous one would have done, as happened with the Iraq War [the first decision of the Executive of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was to withdraw the troops], neither does a party," they say.
Other PP sources contradict this version and assure that Feijóo's new team knew about that prior agreement with the PSOE because they consulted Enrique López's entourage, the previous negotiator, about it.
Government sources insist that Feijóo's team expressed its intention to unblock the renewal of the Judiciary, “until something changed”: “they have decided that it is convenient for them to wait to see if they win the elections to put them directly in charge of the judges”.
Former popular leaders share this theory: "They believe that Sánchez is dead and that people are very angry with the economic situation, but Sánchez has already died and been resurrected several times."
Government sources insist that Feijóo's team expressed its intention to unblock the renewal of the Judiciary, “until something changed”: “they have decided that it is convenient for them to wait to see if they win the elections to put them directly in charge of the judges”.
Former popular leaders share this theory: "They believe that Sánchez is dead and that people are very angry with the economic situation, but Sánchez has already died and been resurrected several times."
Government sources insist that Feijóo's team expressed its intention to unblock the renewal of the Judiciary, “until something changed”: “they have decided that it is convenient for them to wait to see if they win the elections to put them directly in charge of the judges”.
Former popular leaders share this theory: "They believe that Sánchez is dead and that people are very angry with the economic situation, but Sánchez has already died and been resurrected several times."
Among other matters of political relevance, the Constitutional Court is pending the ruling on the abortion law —the draft of the sentence has not been carried out in full due to the uncertainty of the renewal of the court—, the Education law known as the
Celáa law
—name of the previous minister—, the euthanasia law, the loss of the seat of the former Podemos deputy Alberto Rodríguez and the appeal filed against the alternative formulas of oath or promise of office by numerous deputies at the beginning of the legislature.
Meanwhile, the Government has continued with its legal reform and the Judiciary already assumes that the Constitutional renewal will take place in September with the appointment of four magistrates: two at the proposal of the body and another two at the proposal of the Executive.
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