The unblocking ensures a long period of progressive majority in the Constitutional

The unblocking of the renewal of the Constitutional Court, after the decision of this Tuesday of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), will mean that the guarantee court automatically passes - when the magistrates take possession, in the coming weeks - of its current conservative majority (6-5) to a progressive one (7-4).

And this new majority will be for a long period: until 2031 the Government (which appoints two Constitutional magistrates) and the Council of the Judiciary (two others) will not intervene again.

In between, the corresponding renewals will take place in Congress and the Senate.

Unless an overwhelming parliamentary majority of the conservative or progressive bloc emerged from the elections,

Once renewed with the aforementioned progressive majority, the Constitutional Court will have a lot of work ahead of it, although the first step must be the election of a new president.

The progressives Cándido Conde-Pumpido and María Luisa Balaguer continue to be the main candidates.

In all probability, the vice president will be the conservative magistrate Ricardo Enríquez.

In parallel, it will be necessary to begin deliberating on the numerous appeals and draft sentences of a special political significance that have been kept in a drawer in recent months, waiting for an already renovated court to decide on them.

It is certain that the ruling on the current abortion law —appealed by the PP in 2010— will occupy a priority place on the Constitutional calendar.

The rapporteur, the conservative magistrate Enrique Arnaldo, has completed a draft sentence since last spring in which, according to court sources, he endorses the law but establishes certain requirements and precautions for women who want to terminate their pregnancy.

In any case, a change of speaker cannot be ruled out if the text prepared by Arnaldo is considered restrictive by the new majority.

Other relevant resources awaiting resolution and that the court has kept in a waiting pattern are those related to the euthanasia law, the educational reform (Celáa law), the loss of the seat by the deputy of Podemos Alberto Rodríguez, the legislation of the Generalitat to prevent the setting of a quota of 25% of Castilian in Catalan schools, the alternative formulas of oath or promise of the Constitution on the part of the deputies and senators of various groups, the labor reform and the reduction of powers of the Acting General Council of the Judiciary.

The unblocking of the Constitutional marks the starting line for all these pending sentences, and although it is early to determine a calendar of actions for the new court, sources from the guarantee body itself consider it desirable and achievable that all these matters have been resolved over the years. 2023. The same sources underline, however, the electoral nature of next year and the unwritten rule that advises that rulings with the greatest political and social repercussion do not coincide with electoral campaigns.

Despite the restriction that has prevailed so far, the conservative majority has carried out an important job of legal scissors in court, putting at risk the strategy of the current coalition government in the face of some of the most acute problems it has had to face. front facing.

The most prominent case is that of the sentences on the decree of the state of alarm that established the confinement of the population at the first moment of the pandemic.

The majority of the court ordered the annulment of that decree considering that this "suspension" of fundamental rights is only possible under the legal umbrella of a state of emergency.

The tense debate that this sentence entailed has not allowed the court's life to normalize in the year and a half that has elapsed since then, as has been highlighted in the last two plenary sessions of the Constitutional Court.

In these plenary sessions, the very precautionary measure requested by the PP to withdraw two amendments proposed by the PSOE and Podemos in a penal reform project that included legal changes to facilitate the renewal of the Constitution itself has been approved, also in intense deliberations.

In the media of the court itself, it was estimated that it was difficult for the Constitutional Court to continue with an acceptable internal climate after the fractures registered.

The election of the magistrates that corresponds to appoint the Council of the Judiciary took the Constitutional this Tuesday without a closed plan for the relief, but the procedures that are necessary to carry it out will be carried out "immediately", according to court sources.

It is estimated that the plenary session to give the placet to the new magistrates —those chosen by the Judiciary and those already designated by the Government— will take place next Thursday or Friday.

The inauguration will foreseeably be delayed a few weeks.

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