Pablo R. SuanzesSpecial Envoy Bucharest

Special Envoy Bucharest

Updated Wednesday, March 6, 2024-18:26

  • Justice The PP warns that the imminent amnesty pact makes the renewal of the CGPJ difficult

  • Politics Sánchez assumes new changes in the Amnesty Law to give more guarantees to Puigdemont

The agreement for the renewal of the CGPJ has been stalled for five years, and despite the progress of the last two months in the negotiations facilitated by the European Commission, the process is once again approaching a dead end.

The PP, skeptical from the beginning about the situation of the Rule of Law in our country, has pointed out today from Bucharest, where the European

popular parties

are celebrating their congress in style before the European elections, that the agreement finalized this week by Junts and The PSOE closes almost all the doors, and that they are not going to be, because no one in their political family would understand it, those who whitewash the Government of Pedro Sánchez.

"We are going to see what they have agreed to but I tell you one thing: the Government cannot play at the same time to humiliate the judges and renew the Council. Either it is against the judges or it is in favor, and we are not going to allow it with a hand attack them with Junts and with another one speak with the PP. Between today and tomorrow he will say that he is against and it is very difficult to reach a sane agreement for the renewal of the CGPJ with someone who at the same time humiliates, disavows and forces the Supreme Court to be corrected, breaking the division of powers," said

Esteban Gonzáles Pons

.

Pons had planned the next round of talks with

Félix Bolaños

next Wednesday in Strasbourg, but the appointment is currently up in the air, as this newspaper reported today.

Everything depends, on the

popular

side , on what comes out of the Congress of Deputies.

And it looks bad.

"In this Congress of the EPP, no one understands nor would understand that they humiliate the Supreme Court and that we provide him with the excuse of siding with the judges when he is the first enemy of the judges in Spain," Pons added.

There is no decision made, but the ground seems prepared.

Although technically they may be two very different issues, since the European Commission is very much on top of both, in essence there is the same issue: the independence of the courts, the functioning of Justice, the rule of law and the division of powers.

Renewing (and then changing the appointment system) the Council is vital, everyone knows it and Brussels is tightening its grip.

But depending on how far the Government is willing to go, limits can be set.

"When the amnesty ran aground, we all had doubts about who would give in, Junts or the PSOE. If Junts finally accepted it as the Government proposed with red lines or they would also collapse. What has been demonstrated is that the Government's weakness All of us Spaniards are going to pay for it again. This very weak Government does not have the strength to maintain any red line against Junts or anyone. What we are going to know is a new surrender by Sánchez to continue in Moncloa. A worm-ridden government cannot maintain lines. The amnesty was already unconstitutional, now much more so. It was already against the European Treaties, now much more so because it does not have the strength to defend the Constitution and the Treaties," Pons concluded.

Pressure on Von der Leyen

This last European part is relevant.

The Spanish PP plays at home this week and is supported by their team in Bucharest.

They have presented a proposed resolution to influence the issue of the rule of law and obviously it was not opposed.

The message is to denounce what is happening in Spain, the Government's pacts to survive.

And the latest corruption scandals linked to the Sánchez Executive during the pandemic.

In addition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo met this Wednesday with the president of the European Commission,

Ursula von der Leyen

.

Both parties do not have the best of relations;

They have never had it.

It's correct, but not especially close.

There has never been great harmony and there has been a lot of friction since the time of

Pablo Casado

.

After their meeting, about half an hour before the formal start of the Congress, the PP announced that it will support the German as a candidate to preside over the European Commission, but they have asked her for two specific things.

The first, that it relaxes the green agenda after the protests from the countryside and the industry.

The second, more pressure, forcefulness, on the issue of the Rule of Law.

But the PP has used one of lime and one of sand.

While the national leadership sought to build bridges with Von der Leyen, showing that non-enthusiastic and more or less conditioned support, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has charged against Sánchez and has urged her party, and that undoubtedly includes the president of the Commission, to cut all ties with the president of the Spanish Government.

"I ask the European Popular Group not to collude with Pedro Sánchez, who has linked our president [of the EPP] to the Nazis (...) He cannot be whitewashed any further," Díaz Ayuso added in his public intervention.

"The damage they are doing to Spain and, therefore, to the European Union, is everyone's business," concluded the Madrid leader.