The freeze on the appointments of judges heats up the end of the year between the ruling party and the opposition in Spain

The crisis between the government of Pedro Sánchez and the judiciary grow and dye this end of the year in Spain.

The Constitutional Court, which at the request of the main opposition party – the People’s Party – initiated the precautionary measures and suspended on Monday the parliamentary process of a reform proposed by the Psoe-Podemos coalition executive for the renewal of magistrates in the same Constitutional he said no again.

The next day, he reiterated his position and rejected the charges presented by the Senate, which was supposed to discuss this reform in the plenary session this Thursday.

Because the Congress of Deputies had already discussed and approved the change in the appointment of the new constitutional judges. But its passage to the Senate still remained for its final approval.

accusations

“An unprecedented decision in 44 years of democracy,” President Pedro Sánchez called the first block of the Constitution.

“What he did with his decision was to paralyze the action of the Cortes Generales in a matter which, moreoveraffects renewal of the Constitutional Court itself according to what is established by the Magna Carta”, he added in an institutional message so that the press could be summoned even without the possibility of asking questions.

Sánchez said: “This situation has its origin in the decision that the main opposition party, the Popular Party (PP), adopted when it lost the elections and decided to violate the constitutional mandate,” he stressed.

“With this we have witnessed, since then, an unprecedented situation in the history of our democracy, with the blocking of the renewal of the government of judges, of the General Council of the Judiciary, and also of the Constitutional Court. A block whose sole purpose is keep a previous composition and more favorable for their orientation,” added Sánchez.

President Sánchez and the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, clashed during the government control session in the Senate on Wednesday.

“He was in national politics for nine months (as PP chairman) and what did he achieve? A milestone in the democratic history of this country which is to silence the Cortes Generales ”, rebuked Sánchez Núñez Feijóo.

“It is evident that all of us who disagree with you We are putting democracy at risk”, replied the president of the PP.

“Stop disqualifying the Constitutional Court,” he insisted.

an express way

This Thursday, in its last session of the year, the Senate gave the green light to changes to the Spanish penal code with reference to the crimes of sedition and embezzlement. But should have left out the amendments on the renewal of the Constitutional Court which he himself stopped.

In this race against time to find the legal shortcut to achieve what is proposed, the government will insist on the reform of the Constitutional Court through a bill.

Unlike a bill promoted by the Executive, the bill is an initiative of Congress or the Senate. This would be an express route that would also allow avoid the appeal of the procedure by the Constitutional Court.

“In the government, how could it be otherwise, even if we do not agree with the decision, we respect the resolution adopted by the current conservative majority of the Constitutional Court,” Sánchez said on Tuesday.

And also according to the law, under the constitutionthe government will take all necessary measures to put an end to the unjustifiable blockade of the judiciary and the Constitutional Court,” he warned.

Pedro Sánchez’s intention is for the socialist parliamentary group to register the bill in Congress as soon as possible.

But this alternative must be negotiated with its partners in the Congress of Deputies. It could also enable the month of January in Parliament, a time when there are usually no sessions.

The goal is that the reform for the appointment of judges to the Constitutional Court will be approved within a month.

“Parliament will speak. And he will speak clearly,” Pedro Sánchez told the leader of the opposition in the Senate on Wednesday.

“Let him speak for real,” replied Núñez Feijóo. Call elections and tell the truth.”

Meanwhile, the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has convened a new extraordinary plenary session for Tuesday 27 December -because Monday 26 is a public holiday in Spain-, at half past four in the afternoon.

It will be his last attempt to nominate his own candidates to the Constitutional Court.

It remains to be seen whether the move will have an effect given that, if the bill progresses, the new system for appointing judges promoted by the government could enter into force in a month’s time.

Madrid. Corresponding