On January 31, 2007, Esperanza Aguirre, then president of the Community of Madrid, laid the first stone of what would be a megaproject aimed at centralizing all the judicial seats in the region, which, already at that time, were very deteriorated. Nearly two decades later, the outline of what would be the City of Justice remains only a wasteland with a half-finished building after an expenditure of 100 million euros, a court decision which proves the rigging of many of its contracts and the promise of a new court complex that will take at least six years. And, in the meantime, its supposed beneficiaries continue to suffer from an even more degraded judicial system, where breakdowns are more and more frequent and serious.
Just a few weeks ago, the false ceiling of the courtroom of one of the investigating courts in the Plaza de Castilla collapsed and the floor was flooded. Its leaders must have managed to make the aforementioned statements in another room. Last Wednesday, they were able to organize trials again – 16 in a single morning – but several witnesses confirmed that the musty smell was still very strong despite the window still being open. The floor was also still warped. “It’s a constant danger. There’s not a day that goes by without something happening,” says Julia Damià, CCOO’s prevention delegate.
Unions have reported that in recent months false ceilings in several courts have collapsed due to the accumulation of water due to deteriorating pipes, which has also caused supply cuts. The situation became particularly complicated this summer, when breakdowns occurred in the air conditioning of several judicial seats. “Up to five people suffered from fainting due to the high temperatures. It is shameful to have to accommodate in these conditions people who, after months or even years of waiting, risk being compensated for dismissal or being granted disability,” deplores a magistrate. Other officials mention the “lack of work materials” and even personal hygiene, such as hand soap or toilet paper.
The social courts are located in a building on the central Princesa Street, next to what is known as Plaza de los Cubos. They moved into this property, now owned by the real estate company Merlin, when the Community of Madrid sold in 2006 for 62 million euros the building in which many of them were located, on Hernani Street. The goal was to obtain cash for the construction of the failed City of Justice, which architects such as Norman Foster would design.
But the economic viability of this project rested on the good sales of the old judicial buildings. A rain of millions in full boom real estate which moved the sketch of the City of Justice from the projection of an expenditure of 1,000 or 1,100 euros per square meter to the consideration of the figure of 2,000 or even more, as explained in a parliamentary commission of the Assembly of Madrid the one who He was advisor to the Campus in 2008 and took over the newspaper El País.
Meanwhile, what was considered a temporary solution became eternal over time after the first plan to unify head offices failed. A circumstance of great impact for public coffers, since the Community of Madrid spends more than forty million euros each year to rent judicial seats that do not belong to it.
This provisional nature is also reflected in the state of the facilities on Princesa Street. Some courts do not have ventilation or natural light. Public waiting rooms are very small and can accommodate up to eight courts, which means that dozens of people gather there every day, including plaintiffs, defendants, witnesses, lawyers… ” Summer is stifling. “These are not decent conditions for workers or citizens,” says one official.
Four days without running water
In the courts of the Plaza de Castilla, north of the capital, the situation is almost worse. “Every year, with the change of season, situations of lack of heating or cooling arise for a few days due to poor maintenance,” explains Damià. After many years of repairs, that summer the pump broke down and the facility spent four days without running water and with temperatures above 32 degrees, according to the unions.
The Plaza de Castilla complex is made up of several buildings that occupy an area of more than 50,000 square meters and where there are guard posts that remain open and operational 24 hours a day. Approximately 5,000 people, including workers and the public, pass through it every day.
The extreme situation this summer forced the Ministry of Justice to act, which launched an emergency tender for 2.5 million euros through which new autonomous equipment was purchased and “daily measures with calibrated thermometers” were carried out, according to. the Ministry of Justice. A spokesperson for this department assures that since 2017, 6.5 million euros have been invested for “the maintenance, improvement and rehabilitation” of this building. The department refused elDiario.es’ request to be able to access the building to check its condition on site, because it was under “construction” and only “entry was allowed to people who are going to be judged.”
The aforementioned spokesperson claims that only in recent months the regional government has carried out specific works on this property, such as the renovation of the meeting room or the cleaning of the facades and windows, as well as the signing of a new contract maintenance and cleaning, with a larger budget and budget. new company in charge of this work. However, among its workers there is a feeling of complete inattention.
“It’s an absolute abandonment,” summarizes another manager with several years of experience. “When the false ceiling of my courthouse came loose, there was water everywhere. In the bathroom it looked like a shower. When it’s not one thing, it’s another,” he adds. “In the courtroom on duty, there is almost always something broken and it is very frustrating because it delays our work and we have people in very difficult situations in front of us,” explains another. “I’ve been here for 15 years and they cleaned the windows once. This is just another example of the Administration’s negligence,” underlines a third.
The poor infrastructure situation is compounded by a high volume of work. And having to deal with citizens who, sometimes, have been waiting for months, even years, for a trial to be resolved. A situation which contributes to further improving the image of Justice, which suffers from an endemic lack of resources. “We are now reporting urgent layoffs for June 2026,” specifies a manager. In other words, in more than two years. For claims for sums – an unpaid salary for example – the deadline is even longer, until May 2027.
In 2023, 1,023,755 cases entered the Community and 971,115 were resolved, according to the report of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM). However, at the end of the year, a total of 606,366 files remained pending in the drawers. A figure that has been increasing since 2022, when half a million pending files were exceeded for the first time.
Beyond these inevitable tasks, the gaze of the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso is now turned towards the resumption of the macro-project of City of Justice in the same wasteland of Valdebebas which saw the failure of Aguirre’s initiative . But the project will be carried out in several phases and the work will last at least six years.
Madrid’s justice workers still have more than five years ahead of them in buildings that were already very degraded twenty years ago, when they began talking about the reunification of the seats. “The general feeling among staff is that they don’t feel safe in their work, that this wouldn’t happen in a private company. This is yet another example of the deterioration of public affairs,” says the CCOO representative.
