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Former Ministers of Justice of the PP and PSOE urge the Judiciary to renew the Constitutional: “It has to comply with the law”

Four former Ministers of Justice have urged the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) to renew the Constitutional Court by appointing two magistrates because the members “have to comply with the laws” and with the Constitution. Francisco Caamaño, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, Rafael Catalá and Juan Carlos Campo made these statements this Thursday, the day before the conservative and progressive blocs open negotiations with the first meeting to unblock the appointments, four days after the legal deadline expires.

“Whether I like the law or not, I believe that the General Council of the Judiciary has to comply with it,” said Gallardón at the XII Conference of the Governing Boards of the Colleges of Attorneys in Spain. For Gallardón, although for the members it may feel like “an aggression” that only part of their powers have been returned to them with the appointments of the Constitutional Court but not of the Supreme Court, “if the law is the law” the CGPJ “must choose to the two magistrates of the Constitutional so that the Government does the same”.

In addition, Gallardón has said that he subscribes to the speech of the President of the Judiciary, Carlos Lesmes, who urged the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to renew the Council “in the coming weeks” or return their powers, to avoid the adoption of “other types of decisions that we neither want nor like”, such as their possible resignation. But, unlike Lesmes, he has said that he is “optimistic” and that in a “reasonably short period of time and long before the end of this legislature there will be an agreement and the CGPJ will be renewed” because “that is what Spain needs”.

His predecessor in the Ministry, Caamaño, has said that “what has to be done now is to comply with the rules and comply with the Constitution” and that happens by “doing an exercise with civic responsibility” so that the Judiciary appoints the two members of the Constitutional

For his part, Juan Carlos Campo, who was a minister with Pedro Sánchez, has pointed out that we must be “careful about shaking the judicial foundations because the house is falling on us” and, therefore, “the first thing we have to do is comply with the laws”. “We cannot declare ourselves in absentia”, added Campo, who after passing through the Ministry returned to the National High Court.