The president of the Constitutional Court, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, has agreed to study next Monday the admission for processing of the appeal with which the Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association and half a dozen judges who are candidates for the CGPJ are trying to reactivate the renewal of the Council.
The decision comes after the Strasbourg Court concluded on Tuesday that the inadmissibility in 2021 of its amparo appeal had violated the rights of the plaintiffs. The TC argued that the amparo had been filed after the deadline, but the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) considered that this decision was unpredictable and lacked sufficient foundation.
Three magistrates of the TC have sent this Thursday to the president a letter in which they ask that he rectify his decision and that he exclude the matter from which the first Section of the TC will address next week. They are judges Ricardo Enríquez, Concepción Espejel and Enrique Arnaldo.
In their letter, they emphasize that the renewal of the Council is a matter that is part of the current political debate, even more so in the electoral period, and that prudence advises not to address the matter on dates like this, a way of acting that the TC has always followed . The three magistrates request that the matter be removed from the agenda, “in view of the fact that there are no urgent reasons to debate the order.”
“This renewal is a matter subject to public debate among political forces, even in the electoral period in which we now find ourselves after the dissolution of the Cortes Generales and the calling of general elections for next July 23. In short, it is equally It is well known that it is the consolidated practice of this court not to interfere in the electoral processes in course with the deliberation of issues that could have an impact on such processes. There can be little doubt that this is precisely one of those issues with a more than evident impact on the debate politician,” the letter says.
To this the three magistrates of the TC add that the Strasbourg ruling itself indicates that “the declaration of a violation constitutes by itself sufficient just satisfaction for any non-pecuniary damage suffered by the plaintiffs.” In other words, it considers that giving them the reason in their appeal is sufficient, without indicating that the Spanish Justice should make any decision in this regard.
In addition, the decision divided the ECtHR: four votes against three. The three magistrates of the TC recall that it could still be appealed before the Great Chamber of the ECtHR and that, given this narrow margin, “one might even wonder if it would not be convenient for the TC, […] request the Ministry of Justice to timely instruct the State Attorney before the ECtHR to file that appeal before the Grand Chamber”.
If the matter remains on the agenda, what would be resolved on Monday would only be the admission of the matter for processing. The decision on the merits would come well after the electoral period.
The six candidates for vowels backed by the Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association are trying to force the courts to implement the renewal mechanism. The law establishes that it is the Congress and the Senate that designate the members. Given the lack of agreement between the PP and PSOE since the end of 2018, when the Council had to be renewed, none of the Chambers has come to convene the plenary session for it.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project