“I have experienced all kinds of pressure and I have heard varying, even contradictory statements. It has not been easy to remain steadfast in the defense of judicial independence, whether in agreement or disagreement. But I can also assure you that my sole goal has always been to preserve the separation of powers in our country, today and for decades to come.” This is how the leader of the PP… agreement signed with the PSOE the same Tuesday to unblock the General Council for the Judiciary five years later.
Feijóo appeared before the media at the PP's national headquarters, on Génova Street in Madrid, to defend that they have achieved “almost all the objectives” agreed to renew the judiciary, blocked first by Pablo Casado, and by himself, next. The leader of the opposition and the first party in Congress has promised that “any option to politically control the judiciary is over.”
What Feijóo has ignored is that the PP has abandoned one of its most important red lines: “that the judges choose the judges.” The negotiators have precisely delegated the establishment of a new system for electing members of the CGPJ to the new members, who will be appointed by the Cortes Generales throughout the month of July. But the PP has already started playing with words and is now saying that the judges should participate 'directly' in the election of the members, but not exclusively, as they intended.
The PP leader devoted much of his speech to justifying to his people the agreement signed in Brussels on Tuesday. “Why did we negotiate?” he asked, only to answer himself: “Because we know how to distinguish between opposition to the government and loyalty to the state. Both are sturdy. Neither the negative consideration the government deserves nor our responsibility with the high responsibilities of the state has changed.”
Feijóo has defended that “the judiciary is one of the few institutions” that were “safe” from what the PP considers a “colonization” of the institutions by the PSOE. “I'm happy to say this will continue,” he said. “The PSOE is not going to control the judiciary. And neither does the PP. From my side, the mission has been accomplished,” he emphasized.
The PP leader has admitted that “watching the drift of national politics” has “caused deep unrest at many times,” and dismissed that today's agreement speaks of “a new climate” of understanding with the PSOE. “I'm not optimistic. The government did not give in out of conviction, but out of obligation,” he concluded.