2023-11-20 18:09:38
Félix Bolaños (Madrid, 1975) has become one of the key figures in Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet in the last legislature. Participant of some of the most relevant political negotiations in recent years and visible face of the recent amnesty law or the exhumation of Franco, the lawyer and politician now becomes head of the Justice portfolio, thus reinforcing his presence in the Council of Ministers by maintaining their powers in the Presidency. Bolaños arrives in a Justice administration that has been up in arms for months, with a General Council of the Judiciary that has expired for five years and with a judicial career postulated against an amnesty that will foreseeably come into operation during his mandate.
Félix Bolaños, the quiet man who is promoted to key member of the Council of Ministers
Bolaños arrives at the headquarters on San Bernardo Street in Madrid in one of the most turbulent moments in the history of this Ministry and the administration it manages. All associations of judges and prosecutors have openly spoken out against a measure, the amnesty, which is expected to come into force in the coming months. It also arrives at a time of constant accusations against the central executive for alleged political interference in the work of judges and of maximum tension with everything that has to do, from far or near, with the expired General Council of the Judiciary.
On paper, the Ministry of Justice has nothing to say about how judges apply the amnesty law, the renewal of its governing body or, in general, the decisions that thousands of magistrates sign day after day throughout the country. country. But he is the Executive’s interlocutor with all these groups and through his hands all the laws and regulations that affect their work pass, whether due to their working conditions or the reforms that they have to apply in the courts.
In this last aspect, the prominence of Justice compared to other departments has been almost non-existent. The major legal reforms of this legislature have gone ahead with little intervention, with and without microphones, from the department directed by Pilar Llop and from the minister herself.
Bolaños arrives, therefore, in full judicial offensive against the PSOE and Junts agreements that have to do with the amnesty and allusions to ‘lawfare’, and after having been a senior plumber in matters such as the failed negotiations to renew the expired CGPJ . He also does so after being in charge, precisely, of stating that these allusions will in no case imply interference by a parliamentary commission in the work of the judges.
The judicial associations have received his appointment with caution, viewing favorably the political weight of the new head of the Justice portfolio to prioritize matters related to the department. But in the past his statements on issues such as the renewal of the Judiciary have not been well received. For example, when in 2021 Bolaños stated on Cadena SER that “judges cannot elect judges,” in relation to the claim that all members of the CGPJ be elected directly by the members of the judicial career. “If Mr. Bolaños intends to give lessons in real democracy to the European Union, let him say so clearly. “He’s not going to give it to us judges,” replied María Jesús del Barco, president of the majority and conservative Professional Association of the Judiciary. in statements to El Independiente.
Regarding the amnesty, Bolaños takes charge of Justice with judges from all over the country leading unprecedented demonstrations against a legislative initiative. Also with a conservative sector of the General Council of the Judiciary determined to denounce this measure before the European institutions and to behave, in this and other matters, as an extension of the political opposition of the Popular Party in the governing body of the judges.
Strike and 350,000 suspended views
The last stage of the Ministry of Justice has been marked by labor complaints from judicial officials, judges and prosecutors, which have resulted in several strikes and negotiations for salary improvements. At the end of March, the Lawyers of the Administration of Justice (LAJ) called off a strike that had already lasted two months after signing with the Government a salary increase of up to 450 euros gross per month to compensate for the high workloads. There are more than 3,700 of these officials in Spain.
A labor conflict that almost did not overlap with that raised by judges and prosecutors, whose associations called off the strike planned for mid-May after reaching a similar agreement with the Ministry of Justice. A problem that was not resolved until half a year later, when the Council of Ministers gave the green light to all these salary improvements agreed upon in the spring. The various strikes and protests left a balance of 350,000 trials and hearings suspended in courts and tribunals throughout the country.
Bolaños takes charge of an administration with a clear diagnosis of lack of material and personal resources that translates into a slow and collapsed Justice, where a worker who reports a work accident can spend more than a year and a half waiting for a sentence, for example. example. He also becomes an interlocutor for judicial groups that have requested on several occasions the resignation of Tontxu Rodríguez, Llop’s number two, and with the CGPJ studying whether he sanctions his criticism of Judge Manuel García Castellón.
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