The conservative and progressive sectors of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) want to reach Wednesday’s plenary with An agreement to appoint the two key positions of the Supreme Court. The vowels of both sensibilities have been -including the weekend – negotiating ‘in extremis’ An agreement that promotes the renewal of the presidencies of the Criminal and Contentious Chamber of the High Court, after several failed attempts that forced them to postpone this vote.
Sources of the Government Body of Judges consulted by reason detail that the purpose is to be able to vote the candidacies in the conclave of May 7. It would be the first time that this process is reached, since on previous occasions (as happened in the plenary sessions of February 26 and April 1) They ended up removing appointments of the agenda before the lack of agreement between the vowels. This led the president of the organ and the Supreme Court, María Isabel Perelló, to press them to agree on two names warning, in addition, that she would not modify the May calendar.
In fact, among the first points of the agenda of the Plenary Session on Wednesday is the proposal of the qualification commission relating to the provision of the Presidency of the Criminal Chamber and the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court. Both positions are decisive Since the Second Chamber is competent to investigate agoras, while the third reviews the resources against the government’s provisions, through the Council of Ministers.
Divergences about parity
Thus, in the first one, especially serious cases are instructed for Moncloa (such as the branch of the Koldo plot that affects José Luis Ábalos or the procedure against the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, while in the Third Chamber it currently maintains matters of special relevance for the Executive such as the asylum of the thousand immigrant minors in the Canary Islands. It is the same that resolved appointments of the environment of Moncloa, such as the President of the State Council, Magdalena Valerio, who ended up lying in November 2023.
So that these are relevant positions whose choice does not end up for setting in the absence of consensus between both blocks. The options have been fixed for months and from there The parties do not move. The conservatives maintain their proposal that Andrés Martínez Arrieta relieves Manuel Marchena in the presidency of the Second Chamber, but the progressives impose Ana Ferrer.
Arrieta, who assumed the acting presidency after the departure of the latter in December, is The first in the judicial ranks and clear candidate of conservatives. The founder of the Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association (AJFV) entered the judicial career in January 1979. He had his first destination in the Court of First Instance and Instruction of Azpeitia but in these years he has passed through the CGPJ (where he was vocal until 1983), by the Courts of Instruction of Madrid (where he instructed the disappearance of Santiago Corella, ‘El Nani’), by the Provincial Court of Madrid and, after that, by the Supreme Court. In fact, it became The youngest magistrate in accessing this court, with 43 years.
Renewal for two years
Ana Ferrer, meanwhile, was The first woman to enter the criminal hall. He landed in the Supreme Court now 11 years ago from the Provincial Court of Madrid, an organ that presided in 2008. Ferrer already sounded this summer as a favorite to preside over the Supreme Court along with names such as Pilar Teso, magistrate of the Third Chamber. In fact, the presidency of the organ against Perelló was played, but obtained 4 votes against the 16 that the current president was noted.
Precisely, Teso is the bet of progressives to preside over the contentious-administrative hall, which resolves on The acts of the government. The lawyer entered the race in 1985 and exercised in the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid and the National Court before landing at the Supreme Court in 2008. The progressives maintain the suitability of their candidates clinging to the legal report that the Council’s Equality Commission approved on The parity cast of the positions in the field of judiciary. However, the conservative sector remembers what is completed in a recent technical cabinet report that in the appointments of the judicial dome The merit and capacity prevail above the genre.
This block, meanwhile, bets to preside over the contentious room by Pablo Lucas. He is one of the most valued and respected magistrates of the high court. Of progressive tendency, Lucas is the magistrate in charge of Supervise CNI activities in the Supreme (and arrives his substitute). He was first appointed for these functions in November 2009 and in December of last year he was renewed for the third time. Since December 2022 he is acting president of the Third Chamber.
PRIORITY: Unleash the appointments
The sources consulted require that The conservative block does not move of their candidates, of those who expressly defend their veteran and prestige. His allegation to impose these two names lies that both Arrieta and Lucas They are close to retirementso they would be two short mandates. The Organic Law of the Judiciary (LOPJ), in its article 386.1, sets in the 70 years the forced retirement age of a magistrate, although it determines that two more years can be extended. In that sense Martínez Arrieta now turns 70, while Lucas will do it next year.
It remains to be seen if the progressives give in this point with their eyes on 2027. However, it can also happen that fissures in this sector occuras already happened in the negotiations to choose president of the Supreme and the CGPJ. Then, the conservatives scored the key support of two vowels to add and managed to impose on the progressive Perelló, closing the door to other candidates More related to Moncloa. To move forward the votes need a qualified majority of three fifths, that is, 13 votes of the 21 Plenary members (20 members and the president).
The Council, which began operating after the agreement between the PP and PSOE with which they ended five years of blocking, You have your key mission in the appointments. The new members inherited the urgent task of renewing more than a hundred positions in the dome of the judiciary that was causing important collapses in the administration. The previous body had prevented this faculty by law since 2021, when the Government forbade them to make appointments for being in office.
To date, the new organ has renewed more than 60 placesbetween Supreme Court, Superior Courts of Justice and Provincial Hearings. Especially highlight, the election of the Progressive Concepción Urides to preside over the Supreme Social Chamber and Ignacio Sancho Gargallo, at the head of the Civil Chamber. Similarly, they also elected Judge Juan Manuel Fernández as the new president of the National Court and renewed the positions of maximum responsibility in four of his rooms.