Pons warns Sánchez that Reynders demands to reform the CGPJ model and warns that the EU equates Spain with Hungary

He says that the situation is "politically toxic" and will further damage the country's image abroad at the gates of the Spanish Presidency

MADRID, 29 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The PP's Deputy Secretary for Institutions, Esteban González Pons, assured this Thursday that the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, has traveled to Spain to "help" unblock the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and that he has demanded to renew before the governing body of the judges and reform the election model. After assuring that the situation is "judicially unsustainable" and "politically toxic", he warned that the blockade could further damage Spain's image abroad at the gates of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union.

"I am willing to fulfill the mandate of the European Commission. Reynders has asked me for two things and I have said yes to both. He has asked me to immediately renew and reform the model", González Pons told journalists at the end of his meeting of just over half an hour with the European Commissioner for Justice at the Commission's office in Madrid.

The PP MEP has also stated that the situation "cannot continue" because "judicially it is already unsustainable" and because "politically it is already toxic". What's more, he has warned that "internationally it is damaging and is going to damage Spain's image abroad much more."

"Imagine that the Spanish Presidency of the EU could start in a few months with a report on the Rule of Law in Spain that equates our Rule of Law with the Hungarian or the Polish. That would undo, delegitimize the entire Spanish Presidency of the EU ", has warned.

Pons has defended negotiating "everything at once", both the renewal of the CGPJ and the reform of the model because if the governing body of the judges is renewed "unconditionally", then the reform may not be negotiated and they may find that they don't "resolve" what the Commissioner has asked them to do.

"The commissioner asks for two things and I say yes to both. Now I wait to see if the Government also says yes to both. If the Government says yes to both, the matter is probably resolved," he added, to point out that the "electoral calendar does not affect the renewal of institutions".

In addition, González Pons has assured that if the commissioner calls them "this afternoon or tonight" to hold a meeting of three (Government, PP and Commission), his formation is willing to attend "immediately to his call".

(((THERE WILL BE EXTENSION))