The CGPJ will hold an extraordinary plenary this Tuesday to vote for the candidates for the Constitutional

On the agenda are two candidates, César Tolosa and Pablo Lucas, the candidates of the conservative bloc, but more may be added

MADRID, 18 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) will hold an extraordinary plenary this Tuesday, at 5:00 p.m., to vote for the candidates that it is responsible for designating for the Constitutional Court (TC). Thus, the governing body of the judges will meet before December 22, when it is expected that the legal reform promoted by the PSOE and Unidas Podemos by which the modifies the system of election and arrival at the TC of the two candidates nominated by the CGPJ in order to overcome the current paralysis.

On the agenda is the point relating to the appointment of the magistrates to the guarantee court proposed last Wednesday by the conservative bloc, in reference to the Supreme Court magistrates César Tolosa and Pablo Lucas.

According to the call, the members may propose more candidates until the start of the plenary session. The progressive wing already revealed on November 3 that its chosen one was also a Supreme Court magistrate José Manuel Bandrés.

Legal sources consulted by Europa Press consider that this movement intends to force the progressives to withdraw Bandrés as a candidate and support Lucas – who was on the first list of nine candidates released by the progressive members last October. According to the voices consulted by Europa Press, the best positioned to obtain the endorsement of the CGPJ group are Tolosa and Lucas.

It should be remembered that on September 8 the two sectors of the CPGJ agreed on a series of rules to carry out the vote. One of them says that each vowel can propose and vote for two candidates and that it is not necessary to vote jointly; that is to say, that if one gets 11 votes, he is already appointed for the Constitutional although there is not a second candidate who obtains the same support.

The movement of the conservative bloc to put their two names on the table last Wednesday takes place after the previous day Mozo refused to convene the extraordinary plenary session they requested. The interim president of the CGPJ dismissed the initial request of the conservatives, alleging that they had not accompanied their request with the names of at least two candidates for the guarantee court. For this reason, the nine members ended up revealing the name of their chosen ones.

The intention of the conservative block is to vote before the reform promoted by the PSOE and Unidas Podemos is approved, which could be approved on December 22 in the Cortes, if the Constitutional Court does not prevent it beforehand following the appeal presented by the PP in which it is requested to paralyze the parliamentary process. All this because the current system favors conservative members more, something that would change if the initiative that is in parliamentary proceedings were to go ahead.

Specifically, the PSOE and Unidas Podemos propose going from a three-fifths majority --which now requires at least 11 votes-- to a simple one for the CGPJ to designate its two candidates for the TC and that, in the event that the body of government of the judges continues to fail in its obligation to send two applicants to the Constitutional Court, their members can be held accountable even for criminal charges.

In addition, said amendment contemplates that, instead of each of the 18 members proposing and voting for two candidates, they propose and vote for only one, which -according to the CGPJ sources consulted by Europa Press- will guarantee that the two more voted are the aspirants chosen by each block of the Council (the progressive and the conservative). This is, in the case of progressives: Bandrés.

Faced with the rush that the conservative sector has shown this last week, the progressive wing of the CGPJ -- which until now urged their conservative counterparts to proceed with the two appointments to the TC -- has seen it necessary not only to wait for the ordinary plenary session of the CGPJ of December 22 -although an extraordinary one will finally be held on the 20th-, but even postponing any vote on the pair for the Constitutional one until the legal reform enters into force, so that the Council can already pronounce itself with the new system.

Thus, the roles of one block and the other seem to have been reversed as a result of the proposed reform, since at the moment the conservative members ask to speed up, while the progressives advocate waiting.