Lesmes will explain this week his "possible replacement" as president to the CGPJ and the Supreme

Judge Francisco Marín must assume his position, according to the conclusions of the Technical Cabinet

On Thursday, the members of the CGPJ will meet after the two failed meetings to appoint the magistrates of the TC

MADRID, 25 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the Supreme Court (TS), Carlos Lesmes, will explain this week to the Court's Governing Chamber and to the Plenary Session of the judges' governing body the legal mechanism for their "possible substitution ", after threatening - at the opening of the judicial year - to resign if there was no progress in the renewal of the Council, which has been in office since 2018.

Lesmes thus prepares his departure and announces that the president of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court, Judge Francisco Marín, will have to assume his position as head of the High Court and the CGPJ if he resigns. The meeting with Supreme Court magistrates is scheduled to take place on Monday and the meeting with the CGPJ Plenary on Thursday; the latter will coincide with the visit to Spain of the Commissioner for Justice of the European Union, Didier Reynders.

As reported by the CGPJ last Friday, Lesmes will give an account of the report that he requested from the Council's Technical Office with the intention of establishing a roadmap on who should assume his duties as president of the Supreme Court and of the Council, since when the acting body cannot proceed to elect its substitute.

Legal sources consulted by Europa Press have specified that the members of the CGPJ learned through the press of Lesmes' decision to transfer the report to the Plenary, which has generated some discomfort in the body.

The report concludes, among other points, that "both the Constitution and the Organic Law of the Judiciary conceive the presidency of the Supreme Court and the General Council of the Judiciary as a joint and inseparable ownership." Thus, the possibility of articulating "differentiated routes of substitution" is "excluded"; that is, it will not be possible for the Vice President of the Supreme to replace him on the court and for the oldest member to assume his duties on the Council.

"Excluding the double substitution route, this must be provided as a single channel through the vice-presidency of the Supreme Court, who by law is responsible for replacing the president," the members of the Technical Cabinet have concluded.

From the Council they have recalled that the vice presidency of the Supreme Court has been vacant since October 2019, when Judge Ángel Juanes left office due to reaching retirement age. Since then, the position has been filled temporarily by the oldest Chamber president, Judge Francisco Marín, who will be the one to occupy Lesmes' position.

Experts have argued that the Constitutional Court has already cleared up "any shadow of doubt" in this regard when it examined the constitutionality of the substitution regime provided for in the Organic Law of the Judiciary. In addition, they have specified that the substitution of Lesmes will take place "automatically, without the need for any act or agreement".

During the opening of the judicial year, Lesmes indicated to the press that he would not resign until the CGPJ was heading towards an agreement on the two magistrates that it should designate for the Constitutional Court. So far, two meetings have been held between the two Council blocs and they have ended without consensus.

Although a third meeting to address the appointments is not yet scheduled, the conservative members are expected to meet internally on Wednesday, just before the European Union Justice Commissioner begins his two-day visit to Spain.

Legal sources have indicated to this agency that from the progressive wing of the CGPJ they are "available" to meet before the plenary session on Thursday.

Lesmes moved last week to several members his intention to convene a new plenary session on October 3 so that they use it to appoint the two magistrates of the Constitutional Court if they do not take advantage of the ordinary plenary session on Thursday.

The sources consulted, however, have underlined that the fact that an extraordinary plenary session is being held does not imply that the agreement will be achieved, because the key is still to arouse sufficient consensus between the two souls of the CGPJ --progressive and conservative-- to add the 12 votes that are needed from the 19 at stake.

Already in the plenary session on September 8, the members agreed that they would not all meet again until there were two clear candidates, something that still seems distant. Of course, both sectors confirmed in the following plenary session their "firmest commitment to comply with the powers of the Council" to make such appointments.

However, the progressive wing made it clear that there is "a difference in terms of timing", because they have proposed closing the agreement "in the shortest possible time", ahead of the plenary session this Thursday, but the conservatives replied that They did not believe that date could be reached.

The conservative party explained that they still lacked a list of candidates, because they assured that no Supreme Court magistrate had offered them to go to the Constitutional Court. The progressive members, for their part, have already put nine names on the table, including that of Pablo Lucas, the judge in charge of controlling the CNI.

It remains to be seen if throughout the week -and before the plenary session on Thursday- there is any movement on the board that allows progress in the agreements to appoint the two magistrates of the TC, which would lead to the already announced resignation of Lesmes , which --for now-- prepares its departure.