The PP notifies the PSOE that it will be guilty of the blockade if it does not accept to renew the vacancy of the TC that depends on the Senate

The appointment of a replacement for Alfredo Montoya, a conservative-sensitive magistrate who resigned in July for health reasons, is pending.

MADRID, 1 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The PP led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo considers that the Socialist Party will be responsible for the blockade if it does not agree to renew the vacancy of the Constitutional Court that corresponds to elect the Senate, according to sources from the PP leadership.

This same week there has been an agreement to renew the Constitutional Court, after the Government and the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) have managed to present the names of the four magistrates of the guarantee court who will relieve those who saw their mandate expire last June 12.

They are the former Minister of Justice Juan Carlos Campo and the former director of the Ministry of the Presidency Laura Díez, proposed by the Government; as well as Supreme Court (TS) magistrate César Tolosa and retired TS magistrate María Luisa Segoviano, on behalf of the CGPJ.

However, there is still a vacancy pending to be chosen by the Senate, after the conservative magistrate Alfredo Montoya resigned from his position last July for health reasons. Therefore, in recent months there have been eleven members of the Plenary of the TC.

The Upper House must choose Alfredo Montoya's replacement from among the candidates designated by the different regional Parliaments, but that deadline, which expired on December 12, has been extended again.

In fact, until December 12, the Cortes de Aragón was the only autonomous assembly that had sent its candidate to the Senate, proposing magistrate José Ricardo de Prada, who was one of the authors of the sentence of the 'Gürtel case' in which the socialist Pedro Sánchez supported himself to promote a motion of censure against the Government of Mariano Rajoy in 2018.

Judge De Prada has always caused the rejection of the 'popular' during the negotiations with the PSOE in recent years to renew the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), whose mandate has expired for more than four years. In February 2021, the two big parties were about to close an agreement for the Council that ultimately blew up, among other things, due to the veto of Pablo Casado's PP to judges Victoria Rosell and De Prada.

The PP is the main interested party at this moment in appointing that vacancy for the TC that depends on the Senate to balance forces, given that with this week's renewal there are seven progressive magistrates and four conservatives in the guarantee court. However, he needs to agree with the PSOE because the election requires a three-fifths majority.

Although sources from Feijóo's team have told Europa Press that there is no "rush" in this renewal, they already warn that if the PSOE does not agree to negotiate it will be portrayed as responsible for this blockade in the TC.

"We are going to vindicate it. If they want to block it, they are entitled to it," PP sources have pointed out, who have stressed that it will be the Government of Pedro Sánchez that will have to assume responsibility if it wants to appear publicly as the one that is blocking that renewal.

And in this context, the Senate Bureau decided to extend the deadline for the regional parliaments to submit their candidates to fill the vacancy that corresponds to them in the Constitutional Court, keeping open the process to choose the name that will occupy the position left in the summer by the Judge Alfredo Montoya.

The first extension of the deadline for the regional parliaments to send their proposals to the Senate was made at the request of the Valencian Community and Castilla-La Mancha, although parliamentary sources have revealed to Europa Press that only Aragon's proposal has been received.

Once the term for candidacies is over, the Senate will convene the Appointments Commission so that the applicants that exist appear and present their merits. He must then choose the name that will occupy the position left by Alfredo Montoya and approve the election in plenary, where a vote in favor of the PP and PSOE will be necessary to achieve the reinforced majority that is required in these cases.

The Appointments Commission is chaired by Ander Gil and it includes the spokespersons of the parliamentary groups, who will have to decide the suitability of the candidates proposed by the legislative Assemblies of the different communities.