On October 13, in full hangover due to the resignation of its president, the plenary session of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) unanimously approved a statement in which its members promised to continue working “with full normality” and exercising “all and each of the powers attributed to them by the legal system”. Barely three months later, members of both sectors consulted by elDiario.es acknowledge that these powers are, in reality, “very limited” and that their activity will be limited in the coming months to dispatching administrative issues of processing. They acknowledge being “out”, but rule out en bloc resignations.
The PSOE agrees with the PP that judges who enter politics cannot return to Justice until two years after leaving office
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According to the law that regulates it, the CGPJ is the body in charge of guaranteeing the independence of more than 5,000 judges and magistrates and making the most relevant decisions regarding appointments, promotions or disciplinary regime. But for more than four years it has also been an institution subjected to a situation of unprecedented paralysis in a democracy. This blockade is a consequence of the partisan calculations of the Popular Party, whose leaders are willing to extend this situation until the end of the legislature after blowing up at the last moment the most recent agreement attempt at the end of last October.
The last demand of Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party is to recover the proposal that the 12 judicial members be directly elected by the judges. It is a measure that the PP renounced in the last frustrated negotiation and that they reject in Moncloa, where they defend that the renewal must take place before any hypothetical change in the election system. According to the Government, the current model in which the chambers choose from a list preselected by the judges “guarantees that the powers of the State emanate from the citizens.”
Given this situation, the members assume that they will continue in their offices until after the general elections at the end of the year in a state of “lethargy.” They recognize that the election of the two magistrates of the Constitutional Court that corresponded to appoint the CGPJ – and that materialized on December 27 – was the “only matter with political significance” that they had on hand. On the other hand, the halt in the legislative agenda before the next electoral cycle will also mean that new bills on which to issue an opinion are as soon as they arrive, which is another of the essential functions of the governing body of judges. These reports, advisory but not binding, tend to be more or less controversial depending on the initiative.
“The reports that are requested will be to the greater glory of the ministry that proposes it because we know that legislative activity is stopped. They will be requested for pure appearance, to show that they are working… but we already know that they are regulations that will not have a parliamentary run”, affirms a member of the conservative sector. One of the reports expected in the coming months is the reform of the Criminal Procedure Law, which includes as its main novelty the creation of the figure of the investigative prosecutor. Organ sources affirm that the lawyers of the technical cabinet provided the rapporteurs with a draft at the end of December. That opinion has been pending for more than a year and a half, which led the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, to request the CGPJ last October to finish it “as soon as possible”.
four years of paralysis
The CGPJ crossed the threshold of four years in office last December in an absolutely fragile situation: with a president “by replacement” who has his functions assessed, a reduced plenary session (with 18 of its 21 original members) and some powers that are also limited . Mainly, its essential function of making appointments in the judicial leadership, which has led to a threat of collapse in the Supreme Court because vacancies cannot be filled.
According to the data provided by the High Court, there are currently 19 vacancies out of a plant of 79 magistrates. Mainly, due to retirements, deaths or appointments in other destinations. In addition, during 2023 the retirement of another five more magistrates is scheduled, which would raise the vacant positions in the country’s main court to 30%.
These are positions that cannot be filled because, since March 2021, the law prevents the CGPJ from making appointments to the judicial leadership when, as is the case now, it is in office. Until then, an expired body and with a correlation of forces that has nothing to do with the current parliamentary reality, had made 74 appointments to key positions.
This reform was promoted by the government partners to force the renewal of the CGPJ and was appealed by the PP and Vox before the Constitutional Court. Both parties defend that it is unconstitutional because it limits the powers that the fundamental law attributes to the governing body of judges. In recent months, the judicial and political right has criticized the guarantee court’s delay in resolving these appeals, which were admitted for processing almost a year and a half ago, in September 2021. Now, with the renewal of the Constitutional and the change of majorities from a conservative to a progressive one, the members elected at the proposal of the PP have lost all hope that this reform can be annulled.
Precisely this Wednesday, the Government Chamber of the Supreme Court urged Parliament to put an “immediate” “remedy” to a situation that they describe as “unsustainable.” The judges do not make specific proposals and limit themselves to requesting “initiatives” that prevent this scenario from worsening. The estimate is that only in the two chambers most affected by vacancies —the Social Court and the Contentious-Administrative Court— some 1,230 fewer sentences will be handed down this year “with the serious damage to the defendant that this entails” and with the serious delay in thousands of resolutions that would lead to the “collapse” of both rooms.
Meanwhile, the CGPJ has already begun to take steps to strengthen the High Court in the current situation. The Permanent Commission, the hard core of the CGPJ made up of seven of the 18 members of the body, requested reports from the Inspection Service of the Ministry of Justice and agreed on December 21 to renew 38 service commissions for the technical cabinet of the Supreme Court throughout 2023 This is the body that assists the judges in the admission of matters and collaborates with the realization of the studies and reports that are requested of them. The Government Chamber of the Supreme Court demands another 15 lawyers to alleviate the “critical situation” of the most affected chambers. According to the department headed by Pilar Llop, since 2021, 1.3 million euros have been invested in reinforcing the Supreme Court. Mainly, due to the incorporation of lawyers to this technical office.
An expired, conservative majority
Meanwhile, the CGPJ will continue to function with a composition of a conservative majority inherited from the last legislature of Mariano Rajoy. The current governing body of the judges has ten members elected at the proposal of the PP, six from the PSOE, one from the IU and another from the PNV. The vacancies due to the retirement of the conservative Rafael Valverde and the death of the progressive Victoria Cinto have not been able to be filled. The president “by substitution” is the progressive Rafael Mozo, although he turns 72 next July and will have to retire. If there is no renewal, he will be replaced by the next oldest member, the conservative Vicente Guilarte.
Both in the Government and in the CGPJ itself they are convinced that there will be no renewal until after the general elections scheduled for the end of next year and the Chambers are formed again. The en bloc resignation requested by sectors of the judiciary such as the progressive association Judges and Judges for Democracy has not had an echo among the members either and individual departures are not expected in the short term.
The possibility that the members would resign to force the renewal was addressed without success in a plenary session held in December 2020, in full anger with the parties that support the Government regarding the reform that ended up removing powers from the CGPJ when it is in office. Then, the progressive member Álvaro Cuesta raised a resolution proposal for all its members to announce their “resignation” as of January 1, when two years had passed since their mandate expired. That initiative, however, was only supported by four other members of the progressive sector —Clara Martínez de Careaga, Rafael Mozo, Concepción Sáez and Pilar Sepúlveda— and it never materialized into a concrete initiative.
With an annual budget of 76 million euros, the CGPJ offers some of the highest salaries in the Administration. The president and the six members with exclusive dedication earn more than 120,000 euros per year — to which must be added the three-year period or the complement of seniority — and they have an official car and secretarial staff at their disposal.
The rest of the members are only part-time, without exclusive dedication, with a lower salary. These members receive allowances solely for attending plenary sessions or the committees of which they are a part, set at 975 euros and 312 euros respectively. During 2021, the members of the CGPJ who do not have exclusive dedication received, in total, 278,694 gross euros, with an average of just over 21,000 gross euros per year. In addition, the members of the plenary spent during the past year a total of 294,059.38 euros on official trips national and international to attend congresses, give conferences or attend meetings.
