• Courts The CGPJ stresses before the European Parliament that the law of 'only yes is yes' has caused "irremediable" damage
  • Reduction of sentences Irene Montero calls judges "macho", Podemos accuses them of "fachas" and the CGPJ denounces that it is "intolerable"

The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has expanded the information it offered last January to the European Commission for the preparation of its annual report on the rule of law in Spain, detailing the "attacks" of ministers Irene Montero and Ione Belarra to judges and magistrates for their application of the law of only yes is yes.

This is stated in a document approved on March 21 by the Permanent Commission of the CGPJ, an extension of which it already sent to the European Commission last January, two texts to which Europa Press has had access.

In that first report, the CGPJ warned Brussels that its renewal is "the only solution" to the "crisis", although it also pointed to a legal reform. Dissatisfied with this text, a group of five members sent "complementary" answers to the questions posed by Brussels where they denounced the "serious" weakening of judicial independence and, in particular, "the insulting public demonstrations and attacks by members of the Government and the Legislative against judges and magistrates".

According to the sources of the governing body of the judges consulted, it is usual that after that first 'dossier', the Community Executive requests an interview with the issuing body to expand information or resolve doubts. In this case it was with the vocal Nuria Abad, who verbally transferred what now reflects this second report.

In this new document, the European Commission asks the CGPJ to provide "more information" on "attacks against members of the judiciary" that the Council has been condemning in "several statements".

The Council specifies that "there were two institutional declarations by the Permanent Commission". "The first occurred on March 30, 2022 in relation to the placement in the intermodal station of Palma de Mallorca of a poster, already removed then after the controversy raised," he recalls.

It describes that this poster "attributed to the image of a judge a humiliating and sexist message addressed to a victim of gender violence." "The text that was put in the mouth of the judge, which was addressed to a woman, was the following: 'How can I believe that your husband mistreats you if you are alive!!", he collects.

The CGPJ specifies that the poster "reflected the logos of the Ministry of Equality, the State Pact against Gender Violence, the Balearic Institute of the Dona and the Ministry of the Presidency, Public Function and Equality of the Government of the Balearic Islands", so it reflects that it addressed these bodies to "transfer to those responsible the firmest rejection".

"Instrumentalization"

"The Permanent Commission also rejected the apparent instrumentalization of institutions for the financing and achievement of objectives contrary to the inspiring principles of the State Pact against Gender Violence, whose defense judges and courts guarantee daily," he explains to Brussels.

Next, it indicates that "the second of these institutional declarations occurred on November 16, 2022": "It was a statement in relation to the judicial resolutions of review of sentence issued in application of Organic Law 10/2022, of September 6, on the integral guarantee of sexual freedom, following its entry into force on October 7. "

In this regard, he relates that, "once the first decisions of the courts were known, the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, had maintained in public statements that: 'What is happening here is that there are judges who are not complying with the law. It has happened to us with the visitation regimes for abusers in the Children's Law and now it happens to us also with the Law 'only yes is yes'".

And he adds that while "the Minister of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, Ione Belarra, had published on the social network Twitter a message saying that: 'A part of the judges of this country has been erected as opposition to the coalition government and especially to the Ministry of Equality, which is taking progress further than ever. They are misapplying the 'law only yes is yes' and following the example of the CGPJ'".

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  • General Council of the Judiciary
  • European Commission
  • Irene Montero
  • Sexual Freedom Act
  • Twitter
  • Ministry of Defence
  • Ione Belarra