The Constitutional Court suspended the Andalusia appeals against amnesty lawlike that of the rest of the communities. It will not be accepted for processing until it has been analyzed whether a regional government has the legitimacy to appeal this regulation through this channel which, on paper, is limited to matters that directly affect the competence of a community. The TC doubts that this is the case, while Andalusia defends existing jurisprudencethe judicial reports collected and the exceptional nature of this suspension for which there is practically no precedent.
The decision therefore opened a New front between the Andalusian government and the Constitutional Court which had already been openly called into question in recent months by the Executive following its decisions concerning the ERE case which involved a review of the convictions and the cancellation of the prison sentences of several senior socialist officials, including former president José Antonio Griñán.
If the tone against the Constitutional Court was harsh then, it was even harsher this Monday following the suspension of the Andalusian appeal (as well as that of the rest of the autonomies). The decision is considered by the autonomous government as a “legal barbarism, “a democratic setback and an unprecedented delaying strategy.” The Andalusian legal services will analyze whether there is an appeal.
The suspension of the appeals of unconstitutionality presented by the autonomous communities was put forward by El País and confirmed by the Minister of the Presidency, Interior, Social Dialogue and Administrative Simplification, Antonio Sanzwho showed his “surprise and political perplexity” at an unexpected decision.
It is true that regional appeals to the Constitutional Court are conditioned by the regulations that establish that they must refer to matters that affect their competences. But in this case, the Junta de Andalucía, like the rest of the plaintiff communities, has the approval of your legal services who approved the wording of the appeal, Advisory Board and the jurisprudence of the Court itself. “There is no precedent for such a decision, there is no case in which the legitimacy of the communities to appeal on an issue that clearly affects us as the amnesty law has been questioned,” said Sanz, who stressed that there were several communities of the PP and one of the PSOE (Castilla La Mancha) that accepted the use of this road.
Possible resource
“We will analyze this decision in depth. And we do not want to think and cannot imagine that communities will be prevented from having recourse. There is very clear case law and decisions on this matter.“, stressed Antonio Sanz, who announced that the legal services will be responsible for studying a possible appeal against this decision: “We will see if there is an appeal, it is an unprecedented step. It surprised us, fills us with perplexity and concern about the extent to which delaying tactics can be implemented in the face of something that is clearly an unconstitutional law. “When the majority of communities appeal, legitimacy is demonstrated.”
