The CGPJ re-elect Antonio García for the Supreme after the court forced to review the appointment

The first was not valid because the Board excluded experts in commercial law from the shortlist of candidates

MADRID, 26 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has reappointed this Thursday Antonio García Martínez as magistrate of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court (TS), after the TS itself ordered him to make this appointment again, annulling the first because it excluded specialists in commercial law from the shortlist of candidates.

The governing body of the judges already appointed this magistrate for the first time to the First Chamber of the Supreme Court on March 4, 2021, in order to fill the vacancy generated therein by the retirement of Eduardo Baena.

But this first appointment was annulled last December by the Sixth Section of the Supreme Court's Contentious-Administrative Chamber, when upholding the appeal filed by five applicants for the position, where they alleged that they were excluded from the shortlist raised to the Plenary by the Commission Permanent of the CGPJ.

The governing body of the judges justified at the time that it did not include commercial experts in the proposal because this specialty has by law its own quota in the Civil Chamber.

The Supreme Court, on the other hand, determined that said exclusion lacked "legal support", so it was "discriminatory" for the affected candidates. In his opinion, although it is a generalist position, the condition of specialist can be valued "as one more merit", although "not as a preferential criterion".

Thus, the CGPJ has once again voted in its ordinary plenary session this Thursday, following the regulations indicated by the Supreme Court, to once again award the position to García, with 12 of the 17 votes cast, compared to the 3 received by him as well. candidate Francisco Javier Menéndez Estébanez.

The Council details that the members Álvaro Cuesta and Concepción Sáez have voted blank, while the member Juan Manuel Fernández has not participated in the debate and voting on this point, having abstained due to his family relationship with one of the applicants.

García entered the judicial career in February 1990 and was assigned to first instance and instruction courts in Mieres, Getxo and Bilbao. Already in 1999 and until 2003 he was in the Provincial Court of Bizkaia.

That last year he joined the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country, where he remained until his appointment in March 2021 as a Supreme Court magistrate.