Feijóo hardens its conditions to renew the Judiciary, against the criteria of Brussels

Alberto Núñez Feijóo has tightened his conditions for the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), despite the fact that Brussels has again urged this Monday to end the blockade of the governing body of the judges, which has been almost four and a half years with the expired mandate. The leader of the PP does not trust the Government of Pedro Sánchez, say sources in his environment, so, unlike the last time he negotiated with the PSOE, he now demands that the reform of the law that regulates the method of election of the members be approved prior to renewing the CGPJ. "We want the law to appear in the BOE," say sources in Feijóo's direct environment.

Last year, when the Executive and the PP negotiated the update of the council – although in the end an agreement was not possible – Feijóo accepted that first the body be renewed, in accordance with the current law, and then the norm was reformed, in the sense that the judges directly elect 12 of the 20 members without political participation as in the current system. The PP then demanded a written commitment from the PSOE that the law would be reformed, but the important thing was that it agreed to renew with the current law.

Now, however, the PP leader changes the order of factors. First he wants the rule to be changed, and then, with that new law, he wants the council to be renewed. That implies a fundamental change, because in that case the PP and the PSOE would not decide on the conservative or progressive majority of the new council, since 12 of the 20 members would be appointed directly by the judges. The parties would only have the capacity to elect the remaining eight members.

"I am in favor of an immediate reform of the organic law of the judiciary and, based on that reform, immediately renew and update the CGPJ," the PP leader defended on Wednesday in an Expansion forum.

This position of Feijóo means going against the criteria expressed by the Commissioner of Justice, Didier Reynders, this Monday. The commissioner demands that the current CGPJ be renewed first, and then that the system be reformed. "We recommend proceeding with the renewal of the CGPJ. It is a priority and, immediately after the renewal, initiate a process in order to adapt the appointment of its members taking into account European standards, "said the head of Justice of the EU on Monday.

Given this clash with the criteria of Brussels, sources of the popular leadership maintain that they intend to explain to the commissioner that this order of the factors is not possible because the Government "already deceived the PP once" when they were negotiating this matter and the Executive agreed with ERC in parallel a reform of the crime of sedition that for the PP was unassumable. The popular also argue that the Government has de facto breached the pact that they were negotiating at the time, having appointed as magistrates of the Constitutional Court a former minister and a high official of La Moncloa, since in that agreement it was stated that no magistrate could have participated in politics in the last five years. The PP insists, in addition, that the Government does not pay attention to the commissioner when he opposes changing the method of election of the members.

Feijóo is willing to open a new negotiation with the PSOE if the Socialists support the taking into consideration of the PP bill that is voted on next Tuesday to reform the election system of the CGPJ. However, the PP stresses that this law can be approved in a month and that the new council would have to be appointed according to the rules of the new standard. Feijóo thus returns to the position of his predecessor in office, Pablo Casado, who was also unable to reach an agreement with the Socialists.

The leader of the PP leaves in the air, on the other hand, if he would also demand the Government to rectify the reform of the crime of sedition, the reason why he decided to break the last negotiation with the Socialists. Sources in his environment claim "not to have meditated" yet. Feijóo has reiterated this Wednesday that if he reaches the Government he will reform the Criminal Code to reinstate the crime of sedition and replace the penalties in the embezzlement, while repealing the Trans Law and the Law of Democratic Memory.

In any case, in the popular leadership they recognize that in the electoral context they do not harbor any hope that it will be possible to unblock the CGPJ.

The PP charges against the president of the Constitutional Court for the abortion sentence, which he calls "the pasting of posters of Conde Pumpido"

The PP has crossed a very unusual line by charging for the first time directly against the president of the Constitutional Court, Cándido Conde Pumpido, for the sentence that endorses the law of abortion deadlines against the appeal of the PP. Sources of the popular leadership question that the text of the ruling was known this Tuesday, About to start the electoral campaign of the elections of May 28, and accuse the president of the Court of Guarantees of trying to influence the outcome of the elections. The sentence "is the pasting of posters of Conde Pumpido," say sources from Alberto Núñez Feijóo's team.

The date of approval of the sentence was known a month ago, after the deliberation of the appeal of the PP where the result that the Constitutional endorsed the current abortion law was already known. The ruling – which went ahead by seven votes in favor (those of the magistrates of the progressive group) and four against (those of the conservative sector) – rejected the appeal presented 13 years ago by the PP, but the current PP, chaired by Feijóo, had already accepted the law of deadlines. The popular suggest a delegitimization of the court of guarantees by the figure of its president and by the fact that the Government appointed as magistrates a former minister and a high position of La Moncloa. The PP, however, placed in 2012 as magistrate an anti-abortion deputy of the PP, Andrés Ollero, who then wrote the paper on the abortion law (which in the end was never debated).