Judicial Independece

In Spain, Spanish Politics 28th October 2022

The Judiciary Pact Collapses After Sánchez Confirms To Feijóo That He Will Lower The Threshold For Sedition

With only the PP’s signature missing, the pact to renew the judiciary has collapsed. After a telephone conversation this Thursday afternoon between Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez-Feijóo, the negotiations have been “suspended”. “Feijóo has offered President Sánchez to address together any reform of the Penal Code affecting the crimes of rebellion, sedition, as well as the criminalisation of the calling of an illegal…

Spanish Politics 10th October 2022

The President Of The Judges Resigns And Forces Sánchez And Feijoó To Move On

The president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the Supreme Court (SC), Carlos Lesmes, announced on Sunday that he will formalise his resignation tomorrow. This is a month after he threatened to leave if there was no tangible progress in renewing a CGPJ that has been out of date for almost four years. He thus fulfils his promise, but without having managed to get the Council to…

Spanish Politics 14th September 2021

CGPJ: The Problem Is Not One Of Procedure

Fernando González Urbaneja | The deadlock to renew the institutions (more than a thousand days of delay in the CGPJ) indicates that the quality of Spanish democracy is mediocre. And it is not because of the regulated procedures, but because of the application of those procedures by the responsible (or rather irresponsible) politicians. Those in government (socialists and partners) accuse the opposition of being unconstitutional. Meanwhile, the latter’s response is…

Spanish economy 13th April 2021

2,500 Judges Denounce The Spanish Government In Brussels For Attacking “Judicial Independence”

T.C. | Faced with the impossibility of reaching a sufficient parliamentary agreement (it requires an agreement with the opposition) to renew the members of the General Council of the Judiciary, which has been in office for two years, the coalition government of the PSOE and UP passed a rapid reform that ties the Council’s hands and feet and prevents it from making appointments while it is in office. Thus, it is a Council “in functions” but unable to function.