The outgoing president formalizes his resignation before the King and the CGPJ will debate on Thursday the renewal of the Constitutional Court and the possibility that a member and not Marín Castán replace him
The country’s judicial leadership, represented in the Governing Chamber of the Supreme Court, has “deeply” regretted this Monday that on September 26 President Carlos Lesmes was forced to announce his possible resignation from office and today he has made it official before the King. The heads of the different chambers of the high court have reiterated the support they gave the resigned magistrate at the time and have recognized “his commitment and dedication” in these nearly nine years in office, the last four on an interim basis. .
The members of the highest body of the Supreme Court have also expressed their deepest regret and that of all the magistrates of the high court for the situation, “unprecedented in the constitutional experience of Spain, which has led it to make that decision.”
In the statement, they add that “the failure for almost four years by the Congress of Deputies and the Senate of their obligation to appoint the members of the General Council of the Judiciary that has to replace the one formed in 2013 and the impossibility that while the latter makes discretionary appointments, not only are they taking the Supreme Court to a limit situation, but they are also assuming the delegitimization of the Council itself, harming the image of the Judiciary and seriously affecting the Constitution itself.
Therefore, without expressly mentioning it, it requires PSOE and PP, Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo, “that this institutional disaster be put to an immediate end.”
This pronouncement comes after Lesmes communicated to the King on Monday his willingness to immediately cease his duties. After this movement, the still president of the Supreme Court and the CGPJ has summoned the Government Chamber of the high court and the Permanent Commission of the Council to inform both of his resignation, which will not take effect until it is published in the Official Gazette of the State (BOE), expected tomorrow.
Marín Castán and the renewal of the TC
In an official statement from the governing body of the judges, Lesmes adds that once the dismissal was agreed by Felipe VI by Royal Decree, endorsed by the Prime Minister and published in the BOE, and given the legal impossibility of proceeding with the appointment of a new president of the Supreme Court and the CGPJ, as provided in articles 570.2 and 570 bis of the Organic Law of the Judiciary, the replacement mechanism for the president provided for in the law will be activated.
In this case, the current interim vice president of the Supreme Court Francisco Marín Castán, at the time president of the Civil Chamber, will temporarily occupy Lesmes’s chair, according to the technical report requested by him two weeks ago.
However, seven progressive members of the CGPJ have requested that in the extraordinary plenary session to be held this Thursday the appropriateness of a counselor assuming the tasks of Lesmes in the Council instead of Marín Castán be assessed. A request that would mean the creation of a bicephaly in the interim presidency of the two institutions. This task would fall to the oldest member, in this case the magistrate Rafael Mozo.
In the same way, Thursday’s meeting at the CGPJ, now without Lesmes, will address the appointment of magistrates of the Constitutional Court to evaluate the work carried out by the negotiating commission, made up of representatives of the conservative and progressive blocs, and where appropriate the evaluation of possible candidacies to the court of guarantees.
The claim in any case has few signs of prospering because the PP, through Esteban González Pons, announced today that the “last chance” to renew the Council with the PSOE also includes the Constitutional. A mention that has caused discomfort among some members consulted because it invades the powers that the CGPJ has to designate its two candidates.
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