Feijóo assures that he keeps the renewal of the Judiciary blocked “to protect it” from the Government of Sánchez

The leader of the PP has used this Wednesday a new argument to justify the refusal of the PP to renew the General Council of the Judiciary, which has just completed four years of paralysis. Alberto Núñez Feijóo maintains that the PP maintains the blockade in the renewal to “protect the judicial power”, because the Government wants to “control justice and politicize it”. The head of the conservatives argues that, before breaking up over the sedition reform, the PP was negotiating with the Government not only to renew the council, but also an organic law that deepened the independence of justice, which he sees as impossible in light of the last decisions of the Executive. However, Feijóo ignores that the Government has made a move in the Constitutional Court, precisely because of the breakdown of negotiations with the PP. The popular leader has urged Ciudadanos to “say goodbye with dignity” to politics, while he defines some leaders of that party as “usable”.

Feijóo is aware that the blockade in the Judiciary is one of the weak points of his service record as leader of the opposition. The popular leader spends a good part of his public speaking time explaining why at the end of October he broke off the negotiation when an agreement with the Government was about to be closed. “Not reaching an agreement is not something unconstitutional,” he defended himself this Wednesday in an interview on Onda Cero. “If an agreement is not reached between two, there will be joint responsibility. If you place members of the Government in the Constitutional Court, it is not a good precedent, ”he deepened.

In reality, the Executive has appointed two magistrates for the guarantee court —the former Minister of Justice Juan Carlos Campo and the former adviser to La Moncloa Laura Díez— at the end of November, a month after the negotiation with the PP foundered, and after verifying that the conservative sector of the CGPJ does not want to designate the two Constitutional magistrates that corresponds to appoint the governing body of the judges.

The agreement that both parties were negotiating included measures to deepen the depoliticization of justice, such as the prohibition that judges involved in politics could return to the judicial career in the following two years. However, Feijóo argued that a pact with a government that reforms the crime of sedition “à la carte” of the pro-independence leaders and that “calls the judges fachas with robes” is not possible, in reference to United We Can. Sánchez “is interested in the Constitutional Court, not the CGPJ. He does not believe in the Council of the Judiciary because he has intervened and taken away its powers ”, he justified himself this Wednesday.

Since the breakdown of the negotiation of the Judiciary, Feijóo continues to raise criticism of the Government and the PSOE week after week. This Wednesday he ruled that “the PSOE, as we knew it, has ceased to exist”, due to the expulsion of the former president of the Community of Madrid Joaquín Leguina for supporting the current regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. “It has become the sanchista party. It is not the PSOE. Someday, hopefully soon, I hope the PSOE will return. Today we don’t have a PSOE to talk to. The PSOE is losing its identity and its principles”.

In parallel, the PP is looking closely at the internal crisis in Ciudadanos, a party that needs to disappear completely so that it does not steal votes from the right-wing bloc that do not translate into seats. Feijóo has directly invited the party to say goodbye in a dignified way to politics, while he opened the door to sign some of its leaders. “At the polls he will not get representation. In that party there are still people who have talent and who are useful for politics. But the Ciudadanos project is subsumed in the PP, ”he said.

The leader of the PP maintains that he will be attentive to how the Cs crisis unfolds and, when it is over, he will have “no problem talking to people from Cs and assess with them if there is any ability to agree.” That is, try to sign them. The PP’s project to subsume Cs goes back a long time: Pablo Casado tried long ago to reach an agreement with Inés Arrimadas to go to the polls together, or instead to sign her for the PP. Feijóo returns to the charge taking advantage of his extreme weakness.