Batet trusts Conde-Pumpido to recover the TC and stresses that democracy "cannot afford" not to renew the CPGJ

MADRID, 28 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of Congress, Meritxell Batet, welcomed this Saturday that relations between the Lower House and the Constitutional Court have been "normalized" after the institutional conflict last December, and has predicted that its new president, Cándido Conde -Pumpido, will work to give prestige to the institution. She has also warned that democracy "cannot allow" the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) to continue without being renewed when it is "doubling" its mandate.

In an interview with the 'Parlamento' program on Radio Nacional, collected by Europa Press, Batet referred to the meeting he held last Thursday with Conde-Pumpido, within the round of contacts opened by the president of the TC with other authorities after his appointment.

"It was important that the presidents of two constitutional bodies could hold a meeting of institutional normality", he said, while hailing the renewal of the TC as "very positive". "Complying with the Constitution, dignifying democracy and guaranteeing the normal functioning of the institutions in such delicate and complex moments is always good for Spanish society, democracy and the TC itself", he added.

In his opinion, the former State Attorney General during the government of the socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is "a person very committed" to "democratic institutions." For this reason, he is "sure that he will do a great job at the head of the court and has guaranteed that the prestige of the body is at a peak during his term."

The president has explained that, during her one-hour conversation with Conde-Pumpido, they did not talk about the resources that affect Congress and herself that the TC still has pending resolution. "We have not talked about any specific case, it does not correspond, it would not occur to me to raise these issues," she indicated.

One of those issues is the appeal raised by the PP against the amendments approved by Congress to expedite the reform of the TC itself whose processing the high court paralyzed last December, when they were already in the Senate, by accepting the very precautionary measures requested by the populars'.

"The court has the case in its hands, we have presented arguments and we will abide by, as we abide by the resolution," Batet has advanced, who has reiterated the arguments he put forward in December when he defended the action of Congress before the resolution issued by the TC that, then, it had a conservative majority.

Thus, he has once again appealed to the "importance of parliamentary autonomy, expressly recognized in the Constitution" as "one of the core principles of any democratic system", and has highlighted the fact that an amparo remedy, "which can be presented by a single person", can "paralyze the will" of the entire House.

Batet has also referred to the renewal of the CGPJ. "I never throw in the towel, hope is the last thing that is lost," he said, despite the fact that there is less than a year left in the legislature and at the end of May there are local and regional elections.

"The CGPJ, like all constitutional bodies, deserve to function normally and be renewed in due time and form", he stressed, recalling that it is not that the members have "extended their mandate by a few months, a year or two", but rather that they are "doubling it down" as they were elected for five years in 2013 and have already served over four years in office. "A democracy cannot allow itself to be so flagrantly and for so long in breach of the Constitution," Batet stressed.