(Bloomberg) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is heading for a major stand-off with the judiciary in an escalation of a long-running controversy linked to an increasingly partisan political backdrop.
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Lawmakers are set to vote Thursday on a proposal that would allow the government to get its two nominees onto on the Constitutional Court by changing how the judiciary’s governing body, the CGPJ, operates. The government says this is needed amid a four-year-long stalemate with the main opposition party over renewing the CGPJ.
Sanchez’s bold move to circumvent the deadlock highlights the deep polarization of Spanish politics in recent years.
For decades, Spain’s two dominant political parties relied on mutual goodwill to green light the renewal of key judicial bodies, including a council known as CGPJ, which elects members of the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court. But an increasingly fractious political backdrop has undermined such traditions and put Sanchez’s socialist government at loggerheads with the opposition People’s Party.
The head of the Supreme Court, who was also chief of the CGPJ, resigned earlier this year over the crisis, which he said risks collapsing the judiciary as caseloads mount and dozens of vacancies are left unfilled. The European Commission has called on Spain to change the system used to name judges, among other structural reforms.
By using Congress to change how the government gets judges named to the Constitutional court, Sanchez is betting that he will be able to continue governing with existing congressional allies even if it means deepening the country’s political divisions ahead of elections next year.
But in a sign of the increasingly tense situation, daily newspaper El Pais reported that the Constitutional Court may hold an extraordinary session to decide on a request by the opposition People’s Party to halt legislative changes that allow Sanchez to appoint allies to the court.
Sanchez has held talks with opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo to discuss a solution to the crisis. But those talks have failed amid anger in the PP over a government proposal to change criminal laws on malfeasance and sedition. The PP says it has no legal obligation to agree on a renewal.
The laws on sedition and malfeasance, which also go to a vote in Congress Thursday, are widely seen as beneficial for Catalan independence leaders who face criminal charges for their involvement in the failed 2017 secession attempt.
Sanchez’s minority coalition government relies on a wide-ranging group to pass legislation, including Catalan and Basque nationalists.
The judiciary’s governing body is formed by a combination of magistrates, lawyers and academics. Eight of the 20 members are chosen by three-fifths of Parliament, which means they have traditionally required support from both major parties.
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