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"When in December the

Cortes Generales

fulfill their constitutional duty and proceed to renew this institution ...". With those words,

Carlos Lesmes

arrived

at the end of his speech at the opening ceremony of the 2018 judicial year. With little wisdom, because three years later he is still in charge of delivering the solemn speech before the King as president of a CGPJ that continues without be renewed.

Today, Monday at noon, the act will be held again and the scene will be devastating: the King will preside, who has just seen how the Emeritus attacks the

Dolores Delgado

Prosecutor's Office

, sitting two positions to his right and responsible for deciding whether to prosecute any case against Don Juan Carlos in the Supreme Court, whose president, Carlos Lesmes, sitting to the right of the King, will lament in his speech today the dysfunctions and dangers that the lack of renewal of the Council and the decision of the Government to limit its activity in functions. The representative of the Executive, the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, Lesmes will have her on the other side of the King.

The event will be held without hope.

There is no crack through which a renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary can be glimpsed, for which Lesmes has been begging since December 2018, when the mandate expired, and which today is further away than ever.

In September 2019, about to turn the first year without being renewed, his speech at the opening ceremony of the judicial year already included the expression that he has used the most to describe the situation of lockdown: a "serious anomaly."

“This delay constitutes a serious anomaly in the functioning of the institutions and, if prolonged, may contribute to the discredit of the judges' governing body itself.

For this reason, it should be remembered that all public powers have the obligation to preserve the institutions, "he stated.

"The Council has a crucial task assigned to ensure the independence of judges and magistrates, so it should not be weakened by causes that are completely alien to it," he lamented.

Also that day Lesmes was close to Delgado, although not on his right as attorney general - there was

María José Segarra

-, but on his left, as Minister of Justice.

A change of chairs whose legality will be reviewed in October by the Supreme Court.

The President of the Council affirms that the situation represents "a serious anomaly"

After another year, in September 2020 the tone of the speech rose due to a renewal that still did not come "despite the fact that we have been demanding it insistently."

Again he spoke of "a serious anomaly."

"It is the

Constitution

itself

," he insisted, "that sets the duration of each Council's mandate at five years, so I see myself obliged to once again urge the concerned public authorities to renew the institution without further delay."

At that time, looming over the Council was what most of the members considered a threat that added to the non-renewal: the government's plan to prevent them from continuing with appointments to key positions in the judiciary.

«It should also be remembered that the governing body of judges is assigned by the same Constitution some very relevant functions, in particular in matters of appointments, promotions, inspection and disciplinary regime, functions that are permanent and of due compliance, so that they must continue to develop normally, because otherwise it would be to breach the fundamental rule itself, with serious damage to Spanish justice, which would be damaged by an institutional paralysis maintained over time, "said Lesmes.

That serious breach, as Lesmes will regret in his speech, has already entered into force, and having seen the results, it has not served to press for unlocking, as was intended.

On the contrary, it begins to take its toll on the operation of the Supreme Court, which has led the CGPJ to study ways to circumvent the legal reform in practice.

Neither he nor the majority of the members plan to resign to force the renewal of the organ

The disappearance of hope for renewal after the government crisis came already in the early days of Pilar Llop in Justice.

The minister supported before the judicial associations the current system of election of vowels, whose change requires the PP to address the renewal.

Last Thursday he was followed by the Minister of the Presidency, who was even clearer.

And yesterday the President of the Government himself, Pedro Sánchez, who attacked the PP in an interview in

El País

.

«It has been out of the Constitution for a thousand days.

Why are you holding the government of the judges hostage?

The PP has not accepted the electoral result of 2019. [...] This behavior must be called with all the letters: it is undemocratic ».

Given the apparent impossibility of PP and PSOE to reach an agreement, the possibility that Lesmes and the members resign has been considered, thus forcing the situation.

Council sources explain that Lesmes has no intention of taking that step, nor do the vast majority of members.

"The responsibility lies with the parties and they are the ones who must move," they point out.

Pablo Casado - who will attend the act in the Supreme Court today - has responded to the harsh statements of the Government with equal force: without legal reform there will be no renewal.

Everything indicates that Lesmes will continue to accumulate speeches.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • General Council of the Judiciary

  • PP

  • Philip VI

  • Pablo Casado

  • PSOE

  • Pedro Sanchez

  • Dolores Delgado

  • Juan Carlos I

  • Justice

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