Vicente Guilarte, president of the CGPJ: "The political amnesty that is being proposed is foreign to the general interest"

MADRID, 24 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The substitute president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Vicente Guilarte, has warned that the political amnesty being proposed is an issue "external to the general interest based on a temporary need that affects everyone."

This was expressed in an interview published this Sunday by the newspaper 'El Mundo', in which, when questioned as to whether the amnesty has a place in the Constitution, he stressed that to grant it "the decisive thing is to assess the concurrent circumstances", among them "a general consensus that there is not."

"For me the big problem is whether the political amnesty we are talking about is a topic of general interest. A priori, the answer is necessarily negative. If it were of general interest, it would have been in the political programs of the parties, at least in that of the one who now promotes it", he pointed out.

Guilarte has also indicated that an amnesty "could be legitimate if there was previously a national pact on a possible reordering of the so-called Spanish territorial question between the main political forces." "If there was that pact, and an amnesty was granted under certain conditions, subsequently helping to formalize that pact, it would be possible," he explained.

In this sense, he has delved into the fact that what is "constitutionally unfeasible" is "to begin with an amnesty and, much less, as a preliminary step to claims outside the current constitutional order."

Likewise, he has defended the jurisdictional action of the courts on the occasion of the 'procés' and has criticized that the idea expressed by Sánchez when indicating that "a political crisis never had to lead to judicial action", "delegitimizes" what, in his opinion of Guilarte, was "the correct exercise of the function of Justice."

"Ideally rewriting history, longing for what should have been and was not, cannot be used to question today, for partisan interests, a part of its protagonists," he warned in this regard.

The president of the CGPJ, who considers that the use of co-official languages ​​"makes understanding in Congress difficult, has also referred to the 'only yes means yes' law, which he has described as a "furious attack on judges from the public institutions" for pointing them out in the reduction of sentences.

"These criticisms are based on the fact that a criminal does not have the right to the application of the law most favorable to the prisoner, and of course they have the right, even if they are sexual offenders. The critics maintain that it is a problem of the judges who apply the Law "No, look, no. Criminals also have rights," he added.

On the other hand, he has asserted that the culprits of the blockade in the CGPJ are the political parties that have not reached an agreement, which is why he has advocated for a change in the system so that they "lose their harmful role", although he has pointed out that the "corporate alternative would not solve the problem either."

"May politics leave us in peace and fulfill its obligation," he cried, to defend that the body, within the functions it maintains, "continues to function with the best possible will of its members." "About 200 people work in the Council and we are functioning normally, within the limitations that have been imposed on us. We are alive, the dead are decomposing," she said.

In this context, he pointed out that someone would have to "remedy" the nonsense of depriving the body of making discretionary appointments of the judicial leadership because "it is a kind of vicarious violence against the Supreme Court." "We are punishing the Supreme Court for an objective that is not achieved," he lamented in relation to this reform that had the purpose of forcing the renewal of the CGPJ.

Regarding the Supreme Court vacancies, Guilarte has warned that "it would be a good time" for "there to be a certain party agreement" to "take minimal measures."

"For example, the extension of magistrates who must retire soon or the rescue of recently retired magistrates. There would be no winner or loser. And a patch would be put on the critical situation of the Supreme Court. Perhaps a way of dialogue could begin in this way to resolve the blockage of the CGPJ, which clearly cannot be resolved unilaterally, by imposing one or another self-interested renewal formula," he proposed.

Likewise, in relation to the president of the Constitutional Court, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, he has indicated that he is an "excellent jurist", but he has tarnished the message that the Constitutional Court is giving to the citizens. "Every issue with a certain political relevance is permanently resolved with a division of seven progressive magistrates against four conservatives, it is a devastating message," he criticized.

"In the Constitutional Court they have to be aware that they also have to reach agreements, since the message of clear bipolarization is serious," he added, to underline that "a jurist of the stature of the person who presides over it should assume that it is necessary to change it." "Formulas should be sought to avoid it, because the 7-4 does a lot of damage to the credibility of the body and the system," he stated.

The president of the CGPJ has also warned of the "degradation" of judicial institutions, not only due to the non-renewal of the body he presides over, also due to the "insistent criticism of judicial rulings every time someone is not satisfied with a resolution." ". "I have read that the Progressive Union of Prosecutors openly criticizes the Supreme Court for annulling an appointment made by the attorney general. These are the rules of the game. Whoever is a prominent actor in the system cannot criticize the decisions of the Third Chamber; he has to accept them," has ruled on the matter.