The progressive sector of the Constitutional was certain, since last Tuesday morning, that the candidacy of Cándido Conde-Pumpido would win in the plenary session called for the following day and would prevail over the alternative offered, with the support of the new conservative minority, magistrate María Luisa Balaguer.
The sources consulted about the relief operation in court agree that the project and the objectives presented at that meeting by the already president of the guarantee body left little room for doubt, due to the well-defined nature of that work program.
The progressives of the Constitutional now assure that they had certain data to be sure that the election was decided in their favor, although the magistrate María Luisa Segoviano, whose vote was decisive, had never publicly declared who she would support.
In this sector it is taken for granted that Segoviano's decision to support Conde-Pumpido was consolidated at the meeting held by her group last Tuesday morning.
And they consider that Segoviano's condition as a Supreme Court magistrate had some weight in this, made, therefore, to coexistence and debate in collegiate judicial bodies.
Some of the members of the progressive group now go further and assure that they were sure of Segoviano's support since it was proposed by the conservatives of the General Council of the Judiciary, and accepted by their interlocutors from the other sector to unblock the court.
They add that there would have been no logic for this magistrate —who retired last year as president of the Social or labor Chamber of the Supreme Court— to share a project with the right wing of the court, agreed to support Balaguer to prevent the turn that the new progressive majority He wants to give the Constitutional Court, endorsing the abortion law —pending a ruling since 2010—, and then very probably most, if not all, of the most important laws of this legislature, including the one on euthanasia,
Celáa law
and labor reform.
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In essence, the commitment assumed by Conde-Pumpido was to update the Constitution, resolving the oldest cases and trying to prevent new bottlenecks from forming.
And all this avoiding gratuitous institutional clashes, either with the Government —as in the case of the sentences that annulled the decrees of the state of alarm to deal with the pandemic—, or with Parliament, as happened with the paralysis of the legal reforms with which the chambers were preparing to facilitate the renewal of the guarantee court itself.
For Conde-Pumpido it was important to keep the progressive group together, with the confidence that Balaguer would not stray from it even if he lost in the dispute between candidacies.
Hence, in the progressive sector the idea that it was convenient to obtain not only the presidency, but also the vice-presidency was accepted.
It must be borne in mind that from this
number two
position of the court, the Second Chamber of the Constitutional Court is chaired, made up of six magistrates and which in turn is divided into two sections.
Many relevant issues are seen in these instances below the plenary session, especially in matters of amparo remedies.
For the new progressive majority it was important to also keep this spring in their hands.
Hence, therefore, the election as vice president of magistrate Inmaculada Montalbán, who enjoys the full confidence of Conde-Pumpido.
In the previous court, the president, Pedro González-Trevijano, wanted to have Juan Antonio Xiol by his side as vice president.
Then the rule that the presidency was occupied by a sector —in that case the conservative— was respected, while the presidency remained in the hands of a progressive.
But for that you need a relationship of trust.
Between Trevijano and Xiol it existed.
Between Conde-Pumpido and any other of the four members of the new conservative minority, that requirement would not have been so easy.
In fact, the renewal of the Constitution has been achieved in a climate of growing mistrust between the two sectors of the court, progressive and conservative.
For the first group, the presentation of Balaguer, with the support of the four votes from the right of the guarantee body, meant that the first to break the rules of the game were the conservatives, willing to support the alternative candidacy of a long-standing magistrate progressive.
And they always attributed that support to the purpose of blocking the way for Conde-Pumpido, considering him more and better related to the Government.
After the election of the new president and vice president of the Constitutional Court, those misgivings have left their mark.
This Thursday, for example, the conservative magistrates Concepción Espejel and Enrique Arnaldo did not attend the signing of the act of appointment of Conde-Pumpido and Montalbán.
The 11 components of the court had been invited.
Nor did María Luisa Balaguer or Juan Carlos Campo, from the progressive block, attend.
Campo had these days with an extension to finish a trial in the National Court.
But the other absences do not seem due to imponderables.
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