BarcelonaThe People’s Party and the Socialist Workers’ Party announced on Tuesday an agreement signed in Brussels to renew the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), whose term has expired for more than five years. The charter, which pledges to strengthen the “independence of the judiciary,” consists of distributing the twenty members of the Council equally between the populists and the socialists, meaning that ten are proposed by one and ten are proposed by the other. The vote that could lead to a majority will be held by the president of the body, which will be made up of judicial career members, but the Socialist Workers’ Party and the People’s Party say it has not yet been decided. The CGPJ regulations state that members will be the ones to choose. Who are these twenty new members?
Many members come from paths closely tied to politics, notable positions, or conservative and progressive families. As for the legal members – who are not required to be judges – Congress chooses José Luis Costa Belado, President of the Consultative Council of Galicia and the recipient of the full confidence of the Galician People’s Party; Inés María Herreros, a progressive prosecutor, as well as the Supreme Prosecutor of Cantabria, Pilar Jiménez; Argilia Keralt, professor of constitutional law at UB and lawyer of the Constitutional Court, is of a progressive nature close to the Socialist Workers Party, as well as the daughter of ERC Senator Joan Keralt. On the other hand, the legal members, on the proposal of the Senate, approved Ricardo Bottas, retired judge of the Supreme Court; In addition to Bernardo Fernandez, former President of the Advisory Council of Asturias; and Supreme Court Justice Luis Martin Contreras. But one of the best-known names and the most aggressive against the amnesty law is Isabel Revuelta, Cortes’ lawyer. Revuelta, who opposed the Judicial Oblivion Act’s handling of the process by Congress, was returned to the Senate, where the PP has an absolute majority.
The members of judicial origin proposed by Congress will be Supreme Court Justice Ángel Arozamena, who was Director General for Relations with the Department of Justice during the term of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as President, but also progressive Judge Esther Erres (TSJ Navarre), Barcelona Judges Gemma Espinosa – President of the Judicial School She is the wife of Judge Pablo Larrena – and José María Fernández Sego – of a progressive nature. The conservative judges from Málaga and Logroño, José María Páez and José Carlos Oga, complete the list of the Chamber of Deputies in this category.
Meanwhile, the conservative Senate proposes José Antonio Montero, a Supreme Court justice; Chairs of the regional hearings in Cuenca and Valencia, José Eduardo Martínez Mediavilla and Esther Rojo. Both presidents are conservative, but Rojo has a Valencian addition that contrasts with the Catalan – in fact, he takes over from Carmen Lombart, of the same character. The Catalan judge of the Supreme Court of Justice of Catalonia, Carlos Hugo Preciado, was also one of the names agreed upon, a left-leaning person although very far from the process, as was conservative Alejandro Abascal, a judge of the National Court. Court, and Lucía Avilés, a criminal judge from Mataró and founder of the Association of Left-wing Women Judges in Spain – also founded by Podemos member Victoria Rosell.
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