The Government believes that the Justice Commissioner is maneuvering with the PP to impose his judicial model

Shortly before his trip to Spain begins this Wednesday, a deep malaise has broken out in the Government with the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, whom they see as "partial" and aligned with the theses of the PP, which has been blocking for almost four years the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary.

In La Moncloa all the alarms have gone off when it was learned that Reynders met discreetly, without publicity, with the main negotiator and strategist of the PP in this matter, the MEP Esteban González Pons.

The appointment was in Strasbourg, 10 days ago.

The meeting, which officially confirms the commissioner's cabinet, although without offering details of the content, is one more sign, according to government sources, that Reynders is close to the PP's theses on this matter,

The Government is very upset with Reynders (liberal) and believes that he is maneuvering with the PP to impose his judicial model, which implies that the judges directly elect the members of the CGPJ, something that the Executive rejects outright because it would permanently consolidate a conservative majority in the judiciary.

The Government fears that the visit, which begins on Thursday, will become a trap in which the commissioner tries to put the Executive and the PP at the same level of responsibility in the situation created and can thus mediate to find a solution that would consist of that the popular ones agree to the renovation if the socialists assume a change in the model of the system of election of the judges;

and the socialists are not willing to accept it because they defend that the current model,

with an indirect election of the judges —who appoint a list of 52 from which 12 are then chosen by Congress— is the best possible and the one that has been used without problems with all the governments, including those of the PP, that were able to change it when they had an absolute majority and they didn't.

These government sources insist that Reynders "is acting as a person close to the PP, whom Pons admits to seeing frequently."

Another sign of bias is that, according to his agenda, the commissioner will meet with the Professional Association of the Judiciary and Francisco de Vitoria, but not with the progressive Judges for Democracy.

that they could change it when they had an absolute majority and they did not.

These government sources insist that Reynders "is acting as a person close to the PP, whom Pons admits to seeing frequently."

Another sign of bias is that, according to his agenda, the commissioner will meet with the Professional Association of the Judiciary and Francisco de Vitoria, but not with the progressive Judges for Democracy.

that they could change it when they had an absolute majority and they did not.

These government sources insist that Reynders "is acting as a person close to the PP, whom Pons admits to seeing frequently."

Another sign of bias is that, according to his agenda, the commissioner will meet with the Professional Association of the Judiciary and Francisco de Vitoria, but not with the progressive Judges for Democracy.

The Executive does not even have official proof that Reynders is going to request a three-way meeting with Félix Bolaños and Pons to try to mediate, as

“We do not recognize him as a mediator in any case because he has placed himself with a party.

He has bought the entire speech of the PP and has taken sides with these secret meetings with Pons.

A commissioner cannot meet with the opposition of a country behind the government's back.

And on top of that, his trip is being used by the conservative members of the CGPJ to justify a new delay in the renewal of the Constitutional Court.

Spain does not need rapporteurs”, says one of these sources.

Lack of credibility

What bothers the Executive the most is the feeling that the Government and the PP are being put on the same level, when the popular ones have been blocking the renewal for almost four years, they protest.

“Here there is a party that violates the Constitution and another that is willing to meet whenever it is to comply with it.

The only thing that Reynders would have to do on his trip is to ask the PP to comply with the law.

We believe that it has lost its institutional role and is working to favor the PP's strategy”, the Executive insists.

Pons has met with the commissioner, but Bolaños has never done so.

The Executive believes that with these movements, and a trip precisely at the time when the PP is blocking the renewal of the Constitutional, Reynders "has lost all credibility."

From the cabinet of the Belgian commissioner they point out, on the contrary, that it is a habitual practice of Reynders to hold meetings with MEPs with some frequency to deal with current and future legislative matters, as well as current issues, and they do not give more details of the content of the meeting. meeting, which

González Pons has been an MEP since 2014.

Official PP sources have confirmed the meeting, but they limit it to the "regular meetings" of González Pons with Reynders in his capacity as spokesperson for Justice issues of the European People's Party,

In that meeting the specific issue of Spain was not discussed "in any case", these sources assure, adding that it is "touching that the Government wants to say now that the PP commands the European Commission, after having spoken of the complicity of [Ursula] Von der Leyen [president of the European Commission] with Pedro Sánchez”.

However, the Commissioner for Justice has not recently held similar meetings with other MEPs or with the Spanish Government;

although he met with representatives of the Pedro Sánchez Executive (of the Twenty-seven) last week within the framework of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels.

A worrying delay

Reynders has insisted that he travels to Spain for a regular visit and not to resolve the blockade of the General Council of the Judiciary.

But during the trip, he will talk about the 2022 Rule of Law report, where the Commission defines the delay in renewing the CGPJ as "worrying" and asks Spain to undertake it with "priority", in addition to calling on Madrid to change the method of choosing its members "taking into account European standards", that is, that the judges choose the members of the CGPJ directly and not indirectly, as now, that they are chosen by the Courts from a list provided by the judges.

The commissioner will also prepare for the Spanish presidency of the EU, scheduled for the second half of 2022, according to his team.

Reynders will have several public appearances and the Government fears that the PP will take advantage of his intervention to justify the blockade, while the popular ones defend that the position of the commissioner supports their request to reform the method of election of the CGPJ.

The socialists maintain that if the system were changed so that the judges directly elected the majority of the members, the CGPJ would always be conservative, regardless of what the citizens vote, because the conservatives are the majority in the race and have always been.

The European Commissioner for Justice, who last week assured that he is ruling out harsher instruments —such as the sanctioning file that has been opened against Poland due to its judicial situation— on Spain, will try to “facilitate dialogue between political forces to find rapid and urgent support ”, they say from their cabinet.

This is precisely the role of mediator that the Government flatly rejects.

Subscribe to continue reading

read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber