The Diplomat
The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has informed the main authorities of the European Union that it considers that the pacts signed by the PSOE with ERC and Junts per Catalunya to achieve the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as President of the Government amount to the abolition of the rule of law.
The Council has sent two recent statements from this body opposing the aforementioned pacts to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; the Vice-President of the EU Government, Vera Jourova; the Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders; the President of the European Council, Charles Michel; and the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell; as well as to the President of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary, Dalia Vasariene.
The letter addressed to the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary, to which Europa Press had access, informs of “the serious episodes of attack on the rule of law, the separation of powers and judicial independence that are being experienced in Spain”. “In order to obtain his support to be appointed President of the Government of Spain, the current acting Prime Minister has agreed with a fugitive from justice his impunity for various crimes, including corruption offences,” it states in its text.
The CGPJ warns that “the pact includes the possibility of investigations against judges that would be carried out by political parties in Parliament, violating the framework of protection of judicial independence established by law”. “In the opinion of the CGPJ, these pacts, both for their purpose and their content, represent the abolition of the rule of law in Spain and an attack on judicial independence and the division of powers,” it states.
As documentary support, he sends the institutional declaration adopted last Monday by the Plenary of the CGPJ – with nine votes in favour from the conservative sector, five against from the progressive wing and the blank vote of the interim president of the Council, Vicente Guilarte – which warns that the approval of an amnesty law will mean the “abolition” of the rule of law in Spain.
It also sends the one approved on Thursday in an extraordinary session by the Permanent Commission, which has the support of 12 members, both conservative and progressive, and a vote against by the progressive member Pilar Sepúlveda, in which the body expresses its “total opposition” to the creation of parliamentary commissions to detect cases of alleged ‘lawfare’ and anticipates that it will act through “the legally established channels”. The CGPJ asks the president to make this communication and the attached documents “available to the other members and observers of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary, with the added request that they disseminate it in their own judiciaries”.
The agreements reached by the PSOE with Junts provoked a joint statement of rejection on Thursday from the various judges’ associations, including the Association of Judges for Democracy, considered to be of a progressive nature. They were joined by the Association of Prosecutors, which stressed that the pact reflects “absolute contempt” for the rule of law.
A thousand jurists in support of the amnesty
In contrast, a thousand jurists, including former National Court (AN) judge Baltasar Garzón and several Sumar MPs, have signed the manifesto ‘For Amnesty, Democracy and Coexistence’, and have sent letters to EU institutions and authorities defending the future law.
According to a communiqué released by IU, in their letters they warn that the opponents of the future law are “an intolerant minority”, who seek to “destabilise the country” because they have not accepted the result of the general elections of 23 July.
Among the signatories are the magistrate of the National Court José Antonio Mora, Sumar MPs Jaume Asens and Enrique Santiago, the MP of the ‘commons’ Gerardo Pisarello, the lawyer of the ‘procés’ Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas – who came to represent the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont – or the former progressive member of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) Concepción Sáez.
The statement points out that the European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, “belonging to the European liberal family, officially wrote a few days ago to the acting Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, asking for explanations about a law that has not yet been registered and demanding ‘more detailed information, in particular on the personal, material and temporal scope of this planned law'”.
The political formation emphasises that “Reynders sent his letter after receiving a letter from the conservative organisation Citizens Pro Europe with a copy of the declaration signed by some 300 professionals demonstrating against the amnesty law as ‘unconstitutional’ and contrary to the rule of law”.