The President of the Constitutional Court, Candido Count Pumpidohanded over his functions as magistrate this morning to José Maria Macias, with which the TC completes its composition.
Conde-Pumpido celebrated that after the incorporation of magistrate number 12 to the TC and the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, “we can celebrate that Spain begins a new stage of democratic normality in the field of Justice, leaving behind the blockages and constitutional anomalies that have so tarnished the image of our judicial power.”
It is the same message, and with almost the same words, expressed by the government since it reached an agreement with the PP in Brussels to replace the CGPJ and the appointment of Macías.
The event took place in the presence of the Minister of Justice, Felix Bolanosand the Minister for Equality, Ana Redondobesides the State Attorney General, Alvaro Garcia Ortiz; magistrates of the Supreme Court, members of the General Council of the Judiciary – to which Macías belonged until the renewal of this body last July – and numerous jurists. The new president of the Supreme Court and the CGPJ, Isabel Perelló, is not present.
Amid the strong criticism expressed by the PP towards the Constitutional Court, which has a large majority of progressive magistrates as it prepares to address such delicate issues as the amnesty of the process, Conde-Pumpido took advantage of the incorporation of Macías (on the proposal of the popular) to “demand” for the court guarantees “of maximum political and institutional respect for its decisions and its independence”.
The president of the TC stressed the “democratic legitimacy” of the court and its “plural” composition resulting from the appointments of the Cortes, the Government and the CGPJ.
“The Court devotes itself body and soul to to ensure that the Constitution presides over national life (…) in complete independence and full submission to the Constitution and its organic law,” he assured.
“The request of our first president, Manuel Garcia-Pelayo“Making the TC a legal body is actually not that difficult to achieve,” he said.
“Constitutional judges and magistrates have the necessary tools to impose our impartiality far from legal prejudices: legal arguments, nothing more, nothing less,” he added.
