The Congress Plenary is set to elect ten new members of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) on Tuesday. This vote is part of a broader agreement between the PSOE and the PP aimed at renewing the governing body of judges, which has been operating in a caretaker capacity since December 2018 after its mandate expired.
The election involves ten positions; six will come from the judiciary, while the other four will be esteemed jurists. These members will be chosen through a ballot requiring a qualified majority of three-fifths of the Congress, which translates to 210 votes. There will be two rounds of voting: one for the judicial members and another for the jurists. Each congressperson can select up to six names for the judicial roles and four for the juristic positions on their ballots.
Thanks to the support from the two major parties, surpassing the 210 votes will not pose a problem. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether Sumar, the junior partner in the Government, will endorse all candidates or only support Inés Herreros, who has backing from the multi-national group, as well as Carlos Preciado, who will be designated by the Senate.
Most parliamentary groups have chosen to remain on the sidelines of this process, as they were not consulted about the candidates. Vox and Junts criticized the bipartisan agreement during the candidates’ evaluation in the Congress Appointment Committee, while other groups, with the exception of Unión del Pueblo Navarro, did not participate.
In the jurists’ category, the nominees include José Luis Costa Pillado (President of the Consultative Council of Galicia), Inés María Herreros Hernández (a prosecutor and former president of the Progressive Prosecutors’ Union), Pilar Jiménez (Senior Prosecutor of Cantabria), and Argelia Queralt (Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Barcelona and legal advisor to the Constitutional Court).
For the judicial representatives, the nominations consist of Ángel Arozamena (a judge of the Supreme Court), Esther Erice (a judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Navarra), Gema Espinosa (Provincial Court of Barcelona), José María Fernández Seijo (Commercial Judge in Barcelona), José María Páez (senior judge in Málaga), and José Carlos Orga (Provincial Court of Logroño).
On the same day, the Plenary will also approve a bill negotiated by the PSOE and PP that aims to reform the Judiciary Law and the Statute of the Public Prosecutor. This reform seeks to close the so-called “revolving doors” in the justice system, strengthen majority requirements for judicial appointments, and prompt the new CGPJ to propose potential changes to the process of selecting council members.
The new law will establish a regime of incompatibilities for appointing the Attorney General, meaning that individuals who have served as a minister, secretary of state, regional councilor, mayor, MEP, or national or regional legislator in the past five years will be ineligible for this role.
During the legislative process, the PSOE and PP only made technical adjustments and rejected amendments proposed by Sumar, the sole group that submitted suggestions. Sumar found the proposed text insufficient and chose to abstain during the voting in the Justice Committee. Meanwhile, Vox and Junts voted against the reform, while other groups did not participate.
The following day, on Wednesday, the Senate will undertake a similar election process for its ten CGPJ members. In this case, the qualified majority is set at 159 votes. The candidates for the Senate vote include Ricardo Bodas (a retired Magistrate from the Supreme Court), Bernardo Fernández (former president of the Consultative Council of Asturias), Luis Martín Contreras (Lawyer of the Supreme Court), and Isabel Revuelta (Lawyer for the Cortes).
The six candidates from the judiciary are José Antonio Montero (a Judge of the Supreme Court), José Eduardo Martínez Mediavilla (President of the Provincial Court of Cuenca), Esther Rojo (President of the Provincial Court of Valencia), Carlos Hugo Preciado (Catalonia’s Superior Court of Justice), Alejandro Abascal (National Court), and Lucía Avilés (Criminal Judge in Mataró, Barcelona).
Once both the Congress and Senate members have taken office, they will have between three to seven days to elect a president who will also lead the Supreme Court.
Additionally, on the same day, the Senate will vote on a new magistrate for the Constitutional Court to fill a vacancy left by Alfredo Montoya in July 2022 due to health issues. This position is designated for the PP, which has agreed with the socialists to promote José María Macías, a member of the conservative block of the CGPJ.
The nominee successfully passed the suitability test in the Senate with support from the PP, PSOE, Sumar, and the Herreña Independent Group, while UPN abstained. To be appointed, they need at least 159 votes from the full Senate, which they are expected to secure without issue.
Finally, the Senate will also debate and subsequently vote on the judicial reform proposed by the PP and PSOE, which was sent after being approved in Congress. The reform is expected to receive final approval during the session scheduled for July 31.
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