The General Council of the Judiciary has unanimously appointed César Tolosa and María Luisa Segoviano as Constitutional magistrates, report sources from the governing body of the judges. These are the two candidates proposed by the conservative members who had been blocking the agreement for months.
César Tolosa was the option of the conservatives since they stuck to naming their candidate while María Luisa Segoviano, a progressive magistrate, has also been chosen at the proposal of the conservatives, who have refused at all times to accept the candidate of the progressive members of the CGPJ, José Manuel Bandrés. Finally, the progressive block has accepted the name of Judge Segoviano, with which the two candidates have been made at the proposal of the conservative members.
The same conservative members who entrench themselves in the governing body of the judges have finally managed to impose the two candidates for magistrates of the Constitutional Court whose election the law attributes to the Judiciary. Until now, each block chose a candidate. The strategy of the conservatives has been to propose the conservative magistrate for whom they had opted and, in addition, a progressive one, stealing from the members of that sensitivity to propose the name they considered most appropriate.
In this case, the progressives had opted for Supreme Court magistrate José Manuel Bandrés, with extensive professional experience and without a political profile of public relevance. However, the conservatives dismissed it from the outset. In a previous meeting, the conservatives presented Tolosa and the progressive Pablo Lucas, but the progressive sector of the Judiciary refused to renounce their candidate, Bandrés.
Sources of the Judiciary attribute the stubbornness of the conservatives in looking for another name that was not Bandrés to have an option other than Cándido Conde-Pumpido becoming president of the Constitutional Court. The conservative members were sure that Bandrés would vote for Conde-Pumpido and they trust that Segoviano will not do so and opt for María Luisa Balaguer, the other progressive Constitutional magistrate who is running for the position.
With the appointment of the two judges by the CGPJ, the inauguration of the two magistrates proposed by the Government, the former Minister of Justice Juan Carlos Campo and the former General Director of Constitutional Affairs in the Presidency Laura Díez, is unblocked. With the two proposed by the Judiciary, renewal by thirds is achieved. This will cause a change in the majority of the Constitutional Court, leaning towards the progressive sector.
