Headquarters of the Supreme Court, in Madrid.
Pablo Monge
The Supreme Court once again raises its voice in the face of the vacancies suffered by the court due to the delay in the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), whose mandate expired in December 2018. The Government Chamber has unanimously agreed to insist on the Council to urge Congress and the Senate to find an "immediate remedy" for the "untenable situation" in which the court finds itself due to the legal impossibility of filling vacancies for magistrates.
Currently there are 19 of the legal staff of 79 (24%), but in the coming months of 2023 they will rise to 24 vacancies (30.37%).
The magistrates of the Government Chamber —which includes the presidents of the five Supreme Chambers and four other judges elected by their colleagues— have adopted this agreement after endorsing a report by the director of the court's technical office, requested by the CGPJ, where the impact on the activity of each of the Supreme Chambers derived from the legal impossibility of making discretionary appointments by the governing body of judges while it is, as it is now, in office, is specified.
It is not the first time that the Government Chamber appeals to Parliament to end the interim CGPJ, since the law entrusts the renewal to Congress and the Senate.
Both chambers launched the process in 2018, before Lesmes's term expired, but the disagreements between the two main parliamentary groups (whose agreement is essential to obtain the three-fifths majority necessary to appoint the new members) keep blocked the organ.
As on previous occasions, the high court details the precarious situation in which the body finds itself, a situation that it considers "critical" in the case of Chambers IV (Social), with 5 vacancies in a staff of 13;
and III (Contentious-Administrative), with 10 vacancies in a staff of 33. To alleviate this, the leadership of the court demands in its agreement that it be provided with 15 positions as a lawyer in the technical office, eight for Room III and seven for IV.
The Supreme Court is the court most harmed by the government's veto allowing the governing body of judges to make discretionary appointments.
The Government incorporated this prohibition in March of last year in the Organic Law of the Judiciary (LOPJ) through a reform whose objective was to reduce the functions of the current Council as a form of pressure on the PP to sit down to negotiate its renewal.
But the popular ones, first with Pablo married in the presidency and then, with Alberto Núñez Feijóo, have been chaining excuses to prevent the renewal.
In its latest agreement, the Supreme Court demands that Parliament establish an "immediate remedy" for this situation and promote "any other initiatives in order to prevent it from getting worse."
The court estimate is that in 2023, only in the two chambers most affected by vacancies, some 1,230 fewer sentences will be handed down (570 fewer in Litigation and 660 in Social), "with the serious damage" that this entails for citizens, and with the serious delay in thousands of resolutions that would lead to the "collapse" of both chambers, according to the body.
The approved report recalls that the Supreme Court must by law have a president and 79 magistrates, but currently it is without a titular president (after the resignation, last October, of Carlos Lesmes) and with a total of 19 vacancies for magistrates: two vacancies in the First Chamber, ten in the Third Chamber, five in the Fourth Chamber and two in the Fifth Chamber, which means that the Tribunal has to carry out its task with a workforce that is 24.05% less than that legally established.
In the coming months, another five magistrates will retire (one in the Civil Chamber, one in the Criminal Chamber, one in the Litigation Chamber, one in the Social Chamber and another in the Military Chamber), that is, 24 vacancies out of 79 positions, which It represents 30.37% less than expected.
In addition, the positions of president and vice president of the court are vacant (and occupied in office),
Regarding the requests of magistrates for the technical cabinet, the report emphasizes that they would support the chambers in the decision phases, where the most relevant bottleneck is generated, to prepare draft sentences of a repetitive nature under the supervision of the rapporteurs. or with stable and consolidated jurisprudence.
The report recalls that the supreme court "is not in any case the cause, but rather the direct victim" of the situation, which requires the establishment of a system that allows "to overcome existing difficulties and resolve appeals within reasonable time frames, so as not to cause further damage to the citizens, who trust in Justice and await the resolution of their claims without undue delay”.
Regarding Chamber I (Civil), with two vacancies out of a staff of ten magistrates,
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