The plenary session of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has evidenced this Thursday the opposition of several of its members to the resignation of the member Concepción Sáez, elected at the proposal of IU, legal sources report. Sáez has read to his colleagues the letter that he sent on March 13 to the president of the body, in which he justifies his resignation due to the “unsustainable” situation of the institution and describes as “useless” its continuity in what he considers a scenario of “radical and perhaps already irreversible degradation of the institution”. The mandate of the CGPJ expired in December 2018 and it maintains a conservative majority that does not respond to the current parliamentary reality.
Another progressive member of the Judiciary tries to force the renewal with a resignation en bloc
Further
Sáez’s arguments have been rejected by several members, who have questioned the acceptance of his resignation by the president of the body, Rafael Mozo, who has not yet revealed whether he accepts or rejects it. Especially forceful have been the members Enrique Lucas (elected at the proposal of the PNV) and José María Macías (appointed at the initiative of the PP). Both have stressed that they do not see the reasons put forward by Sáez as justified. The law of the Judiciary establishes that the members will cease from their posts “due to the accepted resignation” of the president.
After reading the letter, the first to speak was Lucas, who stated that the resignation of the members is only possible in the event that they are in the ordinary mandate. And that, in any case, the last word belongs to the president, who can also reject it. Macías, for his part, has insisted on the need for acceptance by the president for the resignation to take effect and has alluded to the decline in pluralism of the body that his departure may mean. Conservatives Wenceslao Olea and Vicente Guilarte have also expressed themselves along a similar line. The latter has said that he respected the decision of the vowel, although he has disfigured certain “unpleasant adjectives” from his letter.
In contrast, the vocal Álvaro Cuesta has praised the career of Saéz and has extolled the step taken by the vocal. However, he has not revealed if he will finally resign as well after having promoted a frustrated block resignation of the progressive sector. A meeting of this group held last Tuesday showed that the majority thesis among the councilors elected at the proposal of the PSOE and PNV is that a collective resignation would not force renewal and would mean leaving the body in the hands of the judicial right without any counterweight. Consequently, the possibility of a group resignation was rejected.
Increases the conservative majority
Sáez’s seat will now remain vacant, which will help to enlarge the conservative majority of the body. If there are no more resignations, it will be made up of ten members chosen at the proposal of the PP, six from the PSOE, and another from the PNV, which is usually placed in the progressive sector. In any case, it is a majority that has few practical effects due to the limitation of powers to which the body is subject due to its interim situation. Mainly, its essential function of making appointments in the judicial leadership, which has led to a threat of collapse in the Supreme Court because vacancies cannot be filled. The body is dedicated to dispatching pending administrative issues and preparing some reports on laws that are still pending.
Precisely this Thursday, the members unanimously approved the reports on six bills: family law, trafficking law, age assessment law, law on criminal responsibility of minors, law on official secrets and law on the creation of the independent administrative authority for the defense of financial clients.