The new The General Council for the Judiciary, agreed between the PSOE and the PP, which took office on Thursday and was sworn in by the King, then proposed seven magistrates during its first meeting and Supreme Court judges as candidates to preside over the governing body of judges. Pilar Teso, Pablo Lucas, Carmen Lamela, Ángeles Huet, Ana Ferrer, Antonio del Moral and Esperanza Córdoba are the candidates to preside over the organization in a decision that will be voted on next Tuesday, in the first meeting held after the agreement between the two major parties, reached just a month ago after more than 2,000 days of blockade.
The new Council now has between three and seven days to elect its President by a three-fifths majority (at least thirteen of the twenty members). among the active justices of the Supreme Court. The need to achieve reinforced majorities forces an agreement between the two sectors, one driven by progressive sensibility and the conservative. The two major parties that signed the pact on June 25, PSOE and PP, have denied any initial agreement on the name of the future president of the judiciary and the Supreme Court, leaving that decision in the hands of the twenty new members. The law stipulates that a person must be a member of the judicial career in the category of judge of the Supreme Court, who meets the conditions to be president of the Chamber or be a lawyer of recognized competence with more than 25 years of experience in his profession.
The Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, who participated with the King and the President of the Government in the session for the constitution of the new Council, later stressed at the ministry the importance of the day, “for justice and for the country, for what it brings with it the normalization of the functioning of the three branches of the rule of law: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Bolaños took the opportunity to emphasize that in the recent report on the rule of law of the European Commission on Spain he congratulated himself on the path taken in the agreement to renew the Council, which had been extended for five and a half years due to the veto of the PP, so as not to lose influence in that body. The minister now allowed himself to advise the twenty renewed members to begin as soon as possible “discussions and dialogue on an agreement on the figure of their president, as prescribed by law.”
Among the seven candidates proposed are four magistrates with a progressive profile (three women and one man) and three more conservative magistrates (two women and one man). One of the most popular candidates in PP and government circles for the position of president of the Council of the Judiciary, which will therefore combine the presidency of the Supreme Court, is that of Pilar Teso, who She already competed for that position in 2013, promoted by the progressive sector, against the later elected conservative candidate, Carlos Lesmes.and lost by 16 votes to four. Ultimately, Lesmes resigned and left office in 2022, tired of demanding and demanding that PP and PSOE face renewal The Council's expired dispute, which should have been resolved in 2018.
Pilar Teso began her judicial career in 1985 and has been a specialist in controversial administrative cases since 1989. During her career she has held appointments in the courts of Parla (Madrid), Barcelona, Collado-Villalba (Madrid) and the capital of Madrid. Spain. After reaching the rank of judge, she worked in the Social Court No. 2 of Cáceres (1988-1989), in the Controversial-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Madrid (1989-1997), in the Technical Office of the High Court of Justice (1997-2000) and in the Litigation-Administrative Chamber of the National Court (2000-2008) before her appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court.
Another option for this responsibility could be Carmen Lamela, a judge of the House of Representatives, who began her judicial career in 1986 through the opposition. During Lamela's internship at the National Court, she was able to participate in the case on the independence process. was the one who ordered the capture of Oriol Junqueras and the arrest of the separatist leaders who did not flee Spain in 2017.
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The twenty new members of the Council have gathered after having sworn and pledged their positions in La Zarzuela before the King and the rest of the state powers.
The candidates
Pillar Teso
Pilar Teso (1960), a specialist magistrate of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court since 2008, began her judicial career in 1985 and has been a specialist in contentious-administrative cases since 1989. During her career she has held appointments in the courts of Parla (1960), Madrid), Barcelona, Collado-Villalba (Madrid) and the capital of Spain. After reaching the rank of judge, she worked in the Social Court No. 2 of Cáceres (1988-1989), in the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Madrid (1989-1997), in the Technical Office of the High Court of Justice (1997-2000) and in the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the National Court (2000-2008) before her appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court.
Carmen Lamela
Magistrate of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court since September 2018. She was a lecturer in the 'procés' case at the National Court before the case was brought before the Supreme Court. She graduated in law from the Pontifical University of Comillas in 1984. She had her first appointment at the Court of First Instance and Instruction No. 1 of Orihuela, and then served in the mixed courts of Manzanares and Badalona, where she was a senior judge. . In 1991 she joined the Provincial Court of Barcelona as a judge and two years later she became head of the Investigation Court No. 25 of Madrid, where she remained until 1997, when she was appointed to the Provincial Court of Madrid. In 2014, she was assigned to the Criminal Chamber of the National Court and a year later she worked there at the Central Investigation Court number 3. Lamela was an advisor to the Support Unit of the General Secretariat for Modernization and Relations with the Judiciary of the Ministry of Justice for two years between 2009 and 2011.
He also led the investigation into terrorist crimes committed by the vigilantes and their partners who had been attacked in a bar in the Navarrese town of Alsasua, and was in court, together with Ana Ferrer, another Supreme Court judge who is now a candidate to preside over the Council. examined the appeals filed by the former presidents of the Junta de Andalucía, José Antonio Griñán and Manuel Chaves, against the verdict in the ERE case imposed by the Court of Seville, now reviewed and corrected by the Constitutional Court. Lamela rejected these appeals and Ferrer was the one who cast a dissenting vote against the position of the majority that had confirmed the convictions.
Ana Maria Ferrer
Both Ferrer (progressive) and Del Moral (conservative) were part of the 'process' court. Ferrer disagreed with his other five fellow judges by signing a dissenting opinion in which he concluded that the crime of embezzlement should not be excluded from the amnesty, and thus in theory should also benefit Oriol Junqueras, Raül Romeva, Jordi Turull and Dolors Bassa.
Paul Luke
Pablo Lucas is also a magistrate of the controversial chamber of the Supreme Court and since 2009 he has been responsible for assuming judicial control over the National Intelligence Centre (CNI). This was achieved in November 2023 by annulling the appointment of former minister Magdalena Valerio as president of the Council of State, on the grounds that she did not meet the professional requirements for that position, which was later held by former minister Carmen Calvo. Lucas was considered close to the progressive sector, but has now been proposed by the conservatives. In 2019, together with Pilar Teso, he participated in the court that approved the exhumation of the remains of the corpse of the dictator Francisco Franco from the Cuelgamuros Valley.
Antonio del Moral
Born in 1959, he has been a judge at the Supreme Court of Jurists since April 2012 and was one of the members of the court that ruled on the “proés”. He holds a doctorate in law from the Complutense University of Madrid and has been a public prosecutor through opposition since 1983. He has held these positions in the Technical Office of the Public Prosecutor's Office and in the Supreme Court. He was a professor at the Instituto de Empresa and Procedural Law of the Complutense University of Madrid between 1985 and 2012.
Hope Cordoba
Since February 2020, magistrate of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court and graduated in law from the Autonomous University of Madrid. In 1985, she began her judicial career through a competitive examination. In 2014, she was appointed head of the Inspection Service of the General Council of the Supreme Court. Judiciary, a position she held until her appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court. It was proposed by the conservatives.
Angeles Huet
Magistrate of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court since February 2020. She began her judicial career in 1983. In a situation of special services, she was appointed advisor responsible for the Justice area of the Ombudsman (1984-1995), lawyer of the Constitutional Court (1995-1996) and member of the CGPJ (1996-2001). It was proposed by progressives.