Once again, the result is the same: there is still no agreement to elect the president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). After a very long and intense meeting throughout this Monday, the conservative and progressive blocs have still not managed to agree on who will be the head of the governing body of judges. And time is running out.
This Thursday The opening of the judicial year is celebrated, during which King Felipe VI will deliver a speechA few hours after this solemn ceremony, negotiations between the two sectors will continue this Tuesday, to the extremeAugust 5 will be the key date that will determine whether the members chosen by the PP and those appointed on the proposal of the PSOE have managed (or not) to agree on a consensual candidate to preside over the CGPJ.
Today, the plenary session of this Monday decided to open the list of candidates in order to broaden the possibility of reaching an agreement.
The meeting of the Plenary Council lasted until 9 pm on Monday night. Both blocs assure that they have intensified their efforts to try to have a president before the 5th, who will represent the judicial career at the said ceremony. But for now, no agreement has been reached.
So far, all attempts at rapprochement have fallen on deaf ears.The members proposed by the PSOE insist that the head of this new CGPJ must be a woman to demonstrate a change of cycle, after the renewal last July of a Council that, until then, had been in office for more than five years.
The members proposed by the PSOE want as president or Pilar Teso Oh Ana Ferrer. Both are Supreme Court justices. But the conservative wing rejects them.
The progressive sector, in recent weeks, has made an offer to the other bloc: that Ferrer be president and that the vice-presidency be occupied by a conservative candidate.
To the detriment of Teso—the members proposed by the PP were also rejected, considering him the government’s favorite—, In recent days, progressives have been opting more strongly for Ana Ferrer.
Her CV is that of the first woman to become a judge in the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court and that of a permanent member of the Criminal Law Section of the General Codification Commission. She is also a member of the Judges for Democracy (JJpD). Today, the offer has also fallen on deaf ears.
The conservatives do not want Teso or Ferrer to preside over the CGPJ, a position that also implies that of president of the Supreme Court. When the progressive wing insisted that it be a woman, the PP elected officials suggested Carmen Laméla. There was no agreement.
They also failed when the Conservatives proposed the magistrate. Paul Lucas as President of the Council. Lucas, acting President of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court, is favored by the PP elected officials. They consider him “neutral”, “independent” and they praise his career, although he is considered a progressive. However, this possibility did not materialize either: the members proposed by the PSOE did not perceive him as their own candidate.
In response to the latest offer from the progressives, the conservative wing once again insisted that Lucas chair the CGPJ and proposed that Ferrer be the president of the CGPJ. number two. There was no agreement on this either.
So, if nothing changes and the situation is not resolved, its current elderly president will continue to lead the Council: Bernardo FernandezHe is the member who currently heads the institution because he is the oldest of the twenty who make it up.
However, if this were the case, the new course would begin without the two blocks of the new CGPJ, although it has already held several plenary sessions since last July, having managed to agree on the very relevant challenges that the body will address in the coming months, such as undertaking dozens of meetings or evaluating a proposal for reform of the organic law of the judiciary (LOPJ).
