Members of the progressive sector of the CGPJ promote a meeting to assess a possible resignation en bloc

The departure of the 8 progressive members could paralyze the CGPJ due to lack of a 'quorum'

MADRID, 23 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The progressive sector of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) plans to meet to assess a possible resignation en bloc that would endanger the 'quorum' of 11 members that is needed for the Council's decisions to be valid, after the spigot opened by the resignation of his colleague Concepción Sáez, which has not yet been accepted by the interim president of the institution, Rafael Mozo.

According to sources from the governing body of the judges consulted by Europa Press, there are progressive members willing to follow in the footsteps of Sáez if it is a joint decision, considering that a trickle of resignations would mean leaving the Council in the hands of the conservative bloc, while a departure of the 8 progressive members would risk the 'quorum' and, therefore, could paralyze the CGPJ.

However, from the same sector, some voices stress that these are only internal contacts to listen to the opinion of all the members of the progressive bloc. "There is nothing definitive," they say.

In any case, the tectonic movement would occur after the CGPJ had finalized the appointment of the judicial members of the hearings of the provincial electoral boards for the elections on May 28.

The departure of the 8 progressive members could unleash a new internal battle, since some sources warn that the 'quorum' of 11 is debatable. And this because the regulations establish that there are 10 members plus the president, but since Mozo is a substitute president, it could be interpreted that with a dozen members it is possible to operate.

Currently, the CGPJ is made up of 18 members, 8 progressives --including Mozo-- and 10 conservatives, two less than it should have because during the four years of the Council's interim period, the member Rafael Fernández Valverde retired and Victoria Cinto died, to which is added the resignation of Carlos Lesmes on October 9 to force a renewal political agreement that still has not arrived.

At the moment, Mozo has on the table the resignation letter that Sáez sent him on March 13 and that he plans to address in the ordinary plenary session on March 30 to decide whether to accept or reject it.

In the letter, to which this news agency has had access, Sáez proposes his resignation as "inescapable." In the first place, because the CGPJ has expired for more than four years.

Sáez explains that, "due to an excessive and perhaps mistaken sense of responsibility", he has been "enduring the passing of the months and years, not without restlessness or discomfort", but that "at this moment it is difficult to predict when and how it will be resolved this long crisis that is causing so much delegitimization on the image of our judicial system".

Secondly, the vowel points to "the inability to make certain decisions in the ordinary exercise of the powers of this body while calling for the recovery of improper powers of a Council in office", something that it says has ended by " exhaust" his "patience".

"I consider my continuity legally and politically useless in this scenario of radical and perhaps already irreversible degradation of the institution," concludes Sáez, appointed at the proposal of Izquierda Unida.