After five years of paralysis, the agreement to renew the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) marked the end of the vitiated atmosphere that has characterized the judicial opening ceremony held every September at the Supreme Court in recent years. But the inability – so far – of the new members to elect their president threatens to plunge the institution into a new blockade with unpredictable consequences. Negotiations remain open, but it is not known whether the situation will be resolved by next Thursday and, therefore, who will deliver the traditional speech with which the judicial year begins before a display of robes and authorities, among them King Felipe VI.
All this in a new direction in which the consequences of the blockade to which the governing body of judges has been subjected in the last five years must begin to be reversed: mainly, the accumulation of almost a hundred vacancies in the management of the main courts. But it will also be marked by the challenges related to the application of the amnesty law; the possible indictment of the Attorney General of the State, Álvaro García Ortiz, for having denied Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, chief of staff of Isabel Díaz Ayuso; or the progress of the trial against Begoña Gómez, including the complaints filed against her instructor, Juan Carlos Peinado.
The most immediate are the negotiations to elect the presidency of the CGPJ. Its members will meet this Monday with the intention of resolving an issue that should have been resolved on August 1, according to the deadlines set by law. For now, the members of the conservative and progressive blocs – with ten representatives each – prefer to be cautious and hope that an agreement will be reached, although they admit that the situation is “complicated.” Four votes have been held so far and no candidate has obtained the necessary 12 votes.
At the top of the table are the names of seven Supreme Court judges from whom the highest judicial authority in the State for the next five years should emerge, according to the rules agreed by the judges. The progressive sector aspires for the first time to have a woman preside over the CGPJ, with Supreme Court judge Pilar Teso as the main candidate. The shortlist of the progressive bloc is completed by Ángeles Huet and Ana Ferrer, the only judge who defended the application of the amnesty law to the crime of embezzlement and, therefore, to Carles Puigdemont.
Teso’s profile, with a great legal career, is not appreciated by the conservatives, who consider her an “emissary” of the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños. The preferred candidate of the members chosen on the proposal of the PP is Pablo Lucas, whom they try to pass off as a progressive and consensual profile, something with which they do not agree in the other bloc. However, in the last plenary session in which this issue was addressed, they agreed to elect a woman, but on the condition that it be one of the judges proposed by their sector: Carmen Lamela or Esperanza Córdoba. Their other candidate is Antonio del Moral.
Given the difficulty of reaching an agreement, there has also been speculation in recent days about the possibility of seeking profiles other than the seven others. The law allows lawyers “of recognized competence and with more than twenty-five years of experience in the exercise of their profession” to occupy the presidency of the CGPJ, but different sources believe that in the race – especially within the Supreme Court – this would not be the case. It must be understood that the president will not be part of the High Court.
At the last plenary session where this issue was discussed, Conservative MPs proposed that all judges should vote to elect the chair of their governing body. This is the system by which the governing chambers of the courts are elected and which assumes a predominance of representatives of judicial associations that cover the ideological space of the right or centre-right and an under-representation of minorities and non-associates even though they are almost half the race.
Application of the amnesty
Beyond the presidency of the CGPJ, the new judicial path will also be marked by the challenges of applying the amnesty law. Eyes are turning to Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena, who refused to apply the rule to Carles Puigdemont, and who will have to decide whether to reactivate the European order and try to open a new extradition procedure for the former president of the Generalitat after he fled back to Spain in Barcelona last August, where he managed to enter and leave the country without being arrested.
Llarena’s decision not to apply the amnesty, contested by the executive and shared only by the far right of Vox, certifies that Puigdemont’s judicial entanglement may still have several chapters to write. The order that refuses the application of the law has already been appealed by his defense, the prosecution and the prosecutor’s office. They understand that the crime of embezzlement that the judge attributes to Puigdemont is outside the norm because he has not enriched himself “personally” and that, in addition, its resolution goes against the “will of the legislator.”
The case will undoubtedly end up before the Constitutional Court, which will also soon study the opportunity to admit the question of unconstitutionality presented by the Criminal Chamber of the High Court and which, in the coming months, will also have to analyze the appeals announced by the PP and the autonomies governed by the conservatives.
The possible indictment of the attorney general
A busy autumn is also expected in the State Attorney General’s Office, whose head, Álvaro García Ortiz, is at risk of being investigated in the trial opened against the Attorney General’s Office following the complaint filed by Alberto González Amador, associate of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The judge understands that there could be a crime of revealing secrets in the statement with which the Public Ministry sought to deny several hoaxes about the judicial process for double taxation fraud against the businessman and commission agent.
The commissioner defends that this statement contained confidential information, such as the terms in which his lawyer had offered him a compliance agreement to avoid his entry into prison. The attorney general’s entourage defends that his actions were in accordance with the duty of the Public Ministry to make known the actions of the Public Ministry, as established by the career statute and also to combat disinformation and the serious accusations made by a high official of a government—Miguel Ángel Rodríguez—against prosecutors.
But above all, he claims that no secret could be revealed since the facts that the prosecution dated in its note had already been published by different media thanks to the leak of a redacted email from Rodríguez. It will now be the Criminal Chamber presided over by Manuel Marchena who will decide whether or not to admit the reasoned statement of the case and open a file against García Ortiz.
The case against Begoña Gómez
After a brief summer break, Judge Juan Carlos Peinado is also expected to continue the investigation into alleged corruption that began last April against Begoña Gómez, wife of the president of the government. And all this despite the fact that in the last four months, none of the proceedings initiated have produced clear evidence of a crime against any of the people investigated: Gómez, businessman Carlos Barrabés and the rector of the Complutense University, Joaquín Goyache.
The magistrate has not yet specified what he accuses them of. And, in addition, the investigations have already accumulated two exculpatory reports from the Civil Guard and a dozen testimonies that deny the irregularities in the events initially reported by the ultra-clean hands union.
The magistrate now seems to be focusing on the latest ramification of the case, which concerns the relationship between Gómez and Complutense, where he directed a chair in competitive social transformation. Specifically, the judge is investigating whether he received preferential treatment for directing this chair and whether, in addition, he irregularly managed software developed within the educational center. Today, he has a request on the table to call as a witness a professor and insurance broker friend of Pedro Sánchez who, according to accusations from the extreme right, helped Gómez find sponsors for his professorship.
Meanwhile, Judge Peinado will be pending before the High Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM), whose judges have two complaints on the table accusing him of revealing secrets and procrastination in the management of this investigation. One of them was presented by the prosecution on behalf of Pedro Sánchez. The State Legal Services understand that the judge distorted the law to force his appearance in person at the Moncloa and not in writing. The second bears the signature of Begoña Gómez, who accuses the instructor of fueling a “perverse and prospective” investigation.
