The CGPJ will vote again on Tuesday to elect its two magistrates to the TC with Tolosa and Segoviano as candidates

The conservative block keeps Tolosa and changes Lucas for Segoviano to persuade the progressive wing

MADRID, 22 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has agreed in its ordinary plenary session this Thursday to hold an extraordinary conclave next Tuesday to carry out a second vote in order to elect its two candidates for the Constitutional Court (TC), with the magistrate of the Supreme Court (TS) César Tolosa and his former colleague María Luisa Segoviano as applicants.

As reported by the CGPJ, it has been agreed at the proposal of six of the ten members that make up the conservative sector of the CGPJ, who has been the one who has launched Tolosa and Segoviano as candidates.

It should be remembered that Tolosa was already one of those voted in the extraordinary plenary session last Tuesday, also at the request of the conservative members, obtaining only their 10 votes, one less than necessary.

In the case of Segoviano, although his name is now suggested by the conservative bloc, he was on the first list of nine candidates announced by the progressive bloc last October.

However, the sources of the organ of the judges consulted by Europa Press recall that until the very beginning of the extraordinary plenary session, other candidates may be proposed.

This happened last Tuesday. On the agenda were only Tolosa and the also magistrate of the TS Pablo Lucas, but at the last minute the progressive sector incorporated José Manuel Bandrés, whose candidacy he has defended since November 3.

With this movement, the conservative members seek to resolve the issue of appointments to the TC before the reform devised by the Government - now paralyzed but which could be processed through another parliamentary channel until it is approved next year - is consumed.

The sources explain that the rush that has arisen in the conservative sector is due to the fact that the aforementioned reform will change the voting system favoring the two candidates with the most votes, with which one of each block would emerge victorious, in the case of the current progressive: Bandrés.

The current rules impose a three-fifths majority (11 votes) to send candidates to the Constitutional Court and allow each of the 18 members that currently make up the CGPJ to propose and vote for two applicants.

Until now, the balance of forces in the Council --with 8 progressive members and 10 conservatives-- has made an agreement impossible. In the December 20 vote, the two nominees for the majority sector, Tolosa and Pablo Lucas, obtained 10 votes, while Bandrés obtained 7.

The member Enrique Lucas had to abstain from that first vote, because his brother - also a Supreme Court magistrate - was one of the candidates, which subtracted one vote from Bandrés.

Lucas, like Segoviano - former president of the Social Chamber of the TS -, was part of the first list of nine candidates that the progressive members put on the table and that they finally reduced to one: Bandrés.

The sources indicate that, including a progressive name in their tandem (first Lucas and now Segoviano), the conservative wing wants their counterparts to resign Bandrés, another TC magistrate on whom conservative members have imposed a tacit veto.

In this context, Bandrés's candidacy is perceived as the main stumbling block in negotiations that ran aground on December 2 because both sectors continue to be locked in their respective positions.

The TC has been waiting since June 12 for the four magistrates who make up the third that the Constitution mandates to replace the Government and CGPJ to be renewed: Pedro González-Trevijano and Antonio Narváez, appointed in their day by the Executive of Mariano Rajoy; and Juan Antonio Xiol and Santiago Martínez-Vares, appointed at the time by the governing body of the judges.

The legal doubts about the possibility that the two Moncloa candidates could take office without waiting for the two from the CGPJ led to promoting and approving last July in Parliament an express reform of the Organic Law of the Judiciary (LOPJ) to return to the Council his power to appoint his two applicants to the court of guarantees.

In this context, PSOE and Unidas Podemos designed the aforementioned reform, which, in addition to changing the voting system in the CGPJ, clears the obstacles for those nominated by the Government on November 29, the former Minister of Justice Juan Carlos Campo and the former high office of Moncloa Laura Díez, can take office as magistrates of the TC without having to wait for the two from the Council.