The president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Rafael Mozo, in the center of the image, presides over a plenary session last December. CGPJ (EFE)
The internal gap that had left in the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) the plenary to analyze the salary increase of the judges has extended this Thursday to the conservative bloc. The group of members proposed by the PP in 2013 to be part of the body has been broken in two when voting on what response to give to the pact signed by the Executive and six judicial associations to increase salaries between 440 and 450 euros per month. The assessment of the CGPJ was not necessary because the agreement is already signed and neither the Government nor the associations have asked for their opinion to the governing body of the judges, but a group of members has insisted on giving an answer and from the conservative sector two options have been raised. None has obtained the necessary votes to move forward because the members of that group have voted divided. During the session, members of the body point out, several counselors have reproached the alternate president, Rafael Mozo, his management around this plenary session and, at least two counselors have suggested that he resign. Mozo has rejected it supported by several progressive members, who have come out in his defense.
The CGPJ, whose mandate expired in December 2018 and could not be renewed due to the refusal of the PP to reach a pact with the PSOE, is the protagonist of one of the most serious institutional crises that the country has experienced in recent stage; For almost four years, the members have tried to stand by the anomalous situation, insisting that they did their job as the first day. But the resignation last October of the president, Carlos Lesmes, has left the CGPJ adrift. Mozo, elected substitute of Lesmes for being the oldest member, has not been able to take the helm of the Council and the body bleeds little by little between internal quarrels, resignations or retirements of members and brawls that stain more, if possible, the image of a Council whose legitimacy has already questioned even the Supreme Court.
Tension in the CGPJ
The members of the Judiciary to its president: "If you continue hiding you will force us to make decisions that I do not want"
The plenary session on Thursday was preceded by a strong internal discussion after Mozo did not summon the members to an extraordinary session last Monday to analyze the salary agreement before the Government and the judges signed it, as five counselors had requested. Several members criticized Mozo in an internal chat and accused him of being "hidden" and not wanting to show his face. The anger has moved to the session of this Thursday, say members of the body. The hardest have been the members Enrique Lucas (proposed by the PNV and attached to the progressive sector) and José María Macías (proposed by the PP), who have accused him of breaking the law by not convening the plenary session for Monday and have come to ask for his resignation, sources say. Mozo has defended himself alone and has ended up decreeing a recess to try to get the conservatives to elaborate their proposals and calm the waters. After it, almost the entire progressive group has come out in defense of the president (member of this sector) and the discussion has been settled, although the tension has already flown over the rest of the debate, according to several members.
The discussion then turned to how to respond to the wage agreement. The agenda of the plenary did not provide for the body to pronounce, but only that the three members who have attended the negotiations between the Government and the judges – the conservatives Juan Martínez Moya, Gerardo Martínez Tristán and José Antonio Ballestero – gave an account of the pact. But Martínez Tristán has presented a proposal to request the nullity of the remuneration agreement because the CGPJ was not invited to the signing.
The law on remuneration of the judicial and prosecutorial careers establishes that both the CGPJ and the Attorney General's Office are part of the table in which the salaries of both bodies must be reviewed. But their role, admit sources of the conservative group, is more of "observers" and the protagonism is left to the associations and the ministries of Justice and Finance. However, the text presented by Martínez Tristán stated that to the extent that the CGPJ was not summoned to the act of signing the pact, that act "did not comply with the provisions of the law, which constitutes an essential defect." For this reason, the member asked that the agreement not be endorsed. His proposal has only achieved the adhesion of four members of his group (Macías, Ballestero, Carmen Llombart and Ángeles Carmona), while four other conservatives -Juan Martínez Moya, Juan Manuel Fernández, Nuria Díaz and Vicente Guilarte- have voted against and a fifth -Wenceslao Olea- in bank. The progressive bloc has unanimously rejected the proposal, except Lucas, who has voted blank.
Guilarte presented a different proposal aimed at the CGPJ not considering the agreement null and void, but formally complaining about not having been summoned to sign ("Having intervened the CGPJ in the meetings of the Remuneration Board, we understand that it should have been convened for the endorsement of the agreement," the text said). He has obtained eight votes – the conservatives Carmona, Macías, Martínez Tristán, Ballestero, Llombart, Olea and Guilarte; and the progressive Lucas—and seven against—the conservatives Díaz, Martínez Moya, and Fernández; and progressives Mozo, Clara Martínez de Careaga, Pilar Sepúlveda and Álvaro Cuesta. The also progressives Roser Bach and Mar Cabrejas have voted blank.
75% discount
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Read more
I'm already a subscriber