Another direct confrontation between Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez and the judges. This time, centred on the highest body of judicial governance, General Council for the Judiciary (CGPJ), whose renewal has been deadlocked for years. Spain's largest association of judges, the conservative Professional Association of Magistrates (APM), has expressed its "deep rejection and concern" at the proposal that the Spanish PM has put on the table to reduce the powers of the CGPJ: they consider that it is "unacceptable" and a "true assault on the constitution". "Unfortunately, just one more of the permanent attacks that the judges of this country receive every day", they say in a statement. This morning, the prime minister sent an ultimatum to the opposition People's Party (PP) on the renewal of the CGPJ: if during the month of June, the PP maintains the blockade on membership renewal, the Spanish government would present its own reform of the body, as Sánchez announced in an interview on Spanish public television.
The Socialist leader says he is committed to eliminating the power that the CGPJ has to make appointments to the Supreme Court and the High Courts (TSJ) located in each autonomous community, which, according to Sánchez, is the main "perverse incentive" that the PP has to oppose the renewal of the judicial body's membership. The CGPJ currently has a conservative majority and its mandate expired more than five years ago.
In its statement, the APM reiterates that the situation is "unsustainable" and again requests that, after the renewal, "the reform of the Law of the Judiciary must be addressed immediately so that the judges are the ones who elect the members of the judiciary. "Groundhog day: with excessive haste, they threaten new ways of interfering with and undermining a separation of powers that is the basis of our democracy", conclude the judges. In addition, the APM "urges" all political forces to "avoid these outlandish ideas about the Judiciary that have a serious negative effect on citizens" and return "definitively and urgently" to "dialogue", in order to "fulfill the constitutional mandates".
Sánchez asks for a "response to the assault"
Ironically, the words that Sánchez used in his interview with Televisión Española were almost identical to those in the APM statement. The Spanish PM lamented that "the groundhog day has lasted too long and must end", in reference to the more than two thousand days for which the CGPJ's mandate has been expired. He stated that it is time for the Spanish government and the Congress of Deputies to give a "response to the assault" that the PP has carried out against the Constitution by "kidnapping" the CGPJ and he argued that it is possible to review in Congress one of the faculties that the Council holds right now, in order to make it "more objective, transparent and not so politicized".
And to this end, the first movements have already taken place. The Spanish presidency and justice minister, Félix Bolaños, this morning contacted the institutional deputy secretary of the PP, Esteban González Pons, to resume negotiations between the two parties to renew the General Council of the Judiciary. Later, the PP leader addressed the vice-president of the European Commission, Věra Jourová, to request a three-way meeting with an "urgent character" in the face of Sánchez's "ultimatum and blackmail".