Lesmes threatens to resign if the Judiciary is not renewed in the coming weeks: "If it persists, decisions will have to be made that we neither want nor like"

The president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the Supreme Court, Carlos Lesmes, has summoned this Wednesday the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to meet "urgently" to renew the governing body of the judges, whose mandate expired in December 2018. Lesmes has appealed directly to the leaders of the two main political parties (without whose agreement renewal is not possible) in the presence of the King, who with a serious gesture attended the opening ceremony of the judicial year sitting between Lesmes and the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop.

"That is why, sir, that on this occasion and before your majesty (...

) I publicly and solemnly request the President of the Government of Spain and the head of the opposition and the heads of the political parties with the greatest parliamentary representation to meet urgently and reach an agreement that provides a definitive solution to this unsustainable situation that I have just described , so that the Council is renewed in the coming weeks”, Lesmes claimed, whose words were heard from the room itself by Feijóo, sitting among the guests at the event.

The president of the CGPJ has ruled out resigning from his position for now, but he has left the door open to "other types of decisions", which he has said, "we neither want nor like them", if the parties do not fulfill their obligation .

After his speech, Lesmes has clarified in informal conversations with journalists that his resignation "is a possibility."

It is the fourth time that Lesmes has delivered the opening speech of the judicial year with the mandate extended.

In the previous three, he had also forcefully demanded before Felipe VI the renewal of the governing body of the judges, but this Wednesday's appointment has come at the worst possible time: with the negotiations between the PSOE and the PP already broken for 24 hours of the plenary session in which the Council should elect the two magistrates of the Constitutional Court that it is responsible for appointing, a vote that foreseeably will not go ahead in this plenary session due to the rejection of a group of conservative members.

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In this scenario, the president of the CGPJ has raised the tone of reproach towards the parties and, for the first time, has threatened drastic measures if the renewal of the Council is not unblocked "in the coming weeks".

"If this call is not heeded, it will be necessary to reflect on the adoption of other types of decisions that we neither want nor like," said Lesmes, who, moments before, had ruled out the possibility that the members of the Council resign collectively (as they are claimed from some sectors) for considering that it would be "an irresponsible and unacceptable behavior from the citizen perspective".

Lesmes receives the King at the headquarters of the Supreme Court, this morning in Madrid. Olmo Calvo

After demanding that Sánchez and Feijóo reach an agreement, the President of the Council addressed the King again to explain his ultimatum.

“We owe this urgent summons, sir, to the Spanish judges who legitimately hope that whoever represents them does not remain impassive in the face of the deterioration of their main institutions and, by extension, of the entire justice system.

Out of respect for the dignity of the institutions, it would be inadmissible to remain impassive in this responsibility in the face of this unsustainable and unacceptable situation.”

The words of Lesmes have focused the conversations in the informal cocktail held in the hall of the lost steps of the Supreme Court at the end of the act.

There Feijóo and Lesmes have been seen talking alone, who were later joined by Llop.

They have been chatting for a few minutes and, later, they have been joined by Enrique López (Madrid counselor and ex-spokesman for Justice of the PP), the Supreme Court's deputy prosecutor, María Ángeles Sánchez Conde (who replaced the attorney general, sick with covid), and, finally, the King.

The Minister of Justice explained later that she herself has asked the leader of the opposition to unblock the situation and has given him "guarantees" that the PSOE could present the names of its candidates tomorrow, but he only refers to the plan that presented in the summer and has not given "any response."

Llop has lamented that the popular ones, whom he considers solely "responsible" for the situation, unload all the pressure on Lesmes, to the point of being able to make him resign.

Llop has not felt directly appealed by the request of the president of the CGPJ.

“This is due exclusively to the fact that the PP does not renew the Council.

There is no other cause,” she has said.

Núñez Feijóo, asked by journalists, has assured that he is willing to meet with the Prime Minister to discuss the renewal when Sánchez calls him.

But the negotiation would have to be based on the conditions set by the PP, that is, introducing legal changes so that, among other issues, a minister cannot go directly from the State Attorney General's Office or that to be a Supreme Court judge it is necessary take 25 years of real exercise.

Regarding the threat of resignation of Lesmes, Feijóo has undermined credibility and has indicated that "it would not be sensible" for "the captain of the ship" to resign.

Feijóo has insisted on the conditions proposed by the PP despite the fact that, minutes before, Lesmes had demanded in his speech that the renewal of the governing body of the judges be undertaken "in accordance with current legislation" and "without being subject to by any political force to successive conditions that prevent the fulfillment of the clear constitutional mandate of the term, which does not admit interpretations”, in a clear reference to the demands raised by the popular in recent years.

The president of the Council and the Supreme Court has given Sánchez and Feijóo an alternative to the immediate renewal of the Council, the full restitution of the competence to make discretionary appointments that were withdrawn from the CGPJ while the mandate expired.

That legal reform (which has left 14 of the 79 seats in the Supreme Court empty), is, according to Lesmes, the biggest "mess" that has occurred in the judicial leadership in the entire history of Spanish democracy.

In his opinion, the blockade is causing damage to justice that may be "irreparable" and "is weakening and eroding the main institutions of Spanish justice."

In addition, he has advocated reforming the system for electing the members of the governing body of the judges, but once the current Council was changed, in compliance with the Constitution.

“There is no doubt that the parliamentary election provides the Council with a special legitimacy.

But it is no less true that said model generates a very generalized negative perception of politicization, of self-interested management by politicians, which compromises their appearance of neutrality and trust in justice, a perception that, moreover, has exponentially increased the recent years precisely because of the circumstances surrounding the non-renewal.

The reform is therefore unavoidable and must be addressed as urgently as possible”, Lesmes pointed out.

The consequences of the institutional blockade have monopolized most of the intervention of the President of the Council, but he has also addressed other issues, including what he has called "the dejudicialization" of the

, in reference to one of the objectives announced by the Government and the Generalitat for the dialogue table.

Lesmes has admitted that political action sometimes requires adopting "exceptional" measures to solve problems, "especially those of a territorial nature."

But, in his opinion, "there is a risk that if this announced dejudicialization materializes, what ends up being produced is a flight from the law, or what is even more serious, from the principle of equality in the application of the law to all citizens”.

Read Lesmes' speech at the opening of the judicial year.