ReportWire

Tag: Alberto Núñez Feijóo

  • Judges get dragged into Spain’s toxic politics

    Judges get dragged into Spain’s toxic politics

    [ad_1]

    Press play to listen to this article

    Voiced by artificial intelligence.

    MADRID — Spain’s latest political turmoil is extending a years-long battle between the two main parties over appointments of top judges. 

    In recent months, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez secured a new term by offering an amnesty deal to Catalan separatists in exchange for political support. This was met by outrage from the right-wing opposition, many in the judiciary and prominent lawyers, who have warned such a move could be seen as unconstitutional. Now, this antagonism is feeding into a paralysis in the judiciary’s governing body.

    For years, Sánchez’s governing Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and the Popular Party (PP) clashed over judicial appointments and reform. The two have vied to control the judicial authority and as a result, the entire judiciary, with appointed judges labeled “conservative” or “progressive,” and their political allegiance public knowledge.

    The PP, in particular, has delayed efforts to reach a deal on new appointments, demonstrating the deteriorating relationship in the months since Sanchez’s offer of Catalan amnesty. The judiciary has become their political battleground.

    Critics say conservative leaders are fearful of losing control of the Supreme Court, where conservative-backed judges dominate.

    PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who could not gather enough support to govern despite winning July’s election, has continued to thwart attempts by Sánchez to reach a deal and instead has called for a reform of laws governing appointments.  

    This reflects the Popular Party’s broader political agenda, said Lluís Orriols, a political scientist at Madrid’s Carlos III University.

    “The [Popular Party] hasn’t been accusing the government of not managing the economy or of being corrupt or inefficient, its main angle of attack is to accuse the government of eroding the rule of law,” he said. 

    Terms of judges sitting on Spain’s General Council of the Judiciary, expired five years ago and they remain on the council until the government can appoint new judges. The council, which appoints top judges, has been unable to appoint 23 out of 79 Supreme Court positions that have opened up due to retirements and deaths during the half-decade hiatus.

    The PSOE and PP have not managed to secure the three-fifths support needed from parliament to make new appointments. Currently, Spain’s highest judicial authority, dominated by judges appointed by the PP in 2013 when it was in power, operates on an interim basis, drawing concern from the EU.

    European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders recently described new appointments on Spain’s General Council of the Judiciary as “a matter of priority.”

    Such is the entrenched nature of the stand-off that both sides have now agreed to let the European Commission mediate.

    The EU’s 2023 justice scorecard placed Spain 23rd in the bloc for public perception of independence of courts and judges, with political pressure the most commonly cited cause of interference. 

    Pedro Sanchez appauds prior a Parliamentary debate on the eve of a vote to elect Spain’s next premier, at the Congress of Deputies in Madrid on November 15, 2023 | Javier Soriano/AFP via Getty Images

    “As well as damaging the credibility of public institutions, this [dispute] demonstrates that the Spanish justice system is very susceptible to party political interference,” said Joaquim Bosch, a judge and spokesman in the Valencia region for the Judges for Democracy (JxD) association, which has frequently criticized the judiciary.

    The politicization of the judiciary has been a recurring theme for decades. In 1985, the Socialist government of Felipe González, keen to limit the influence of the many Franco-era judges still serving, introduced a reform that allowed parliament to appoint members of the judiciary council. 

    While the dispute over the judiciary’s governing body has continued, tensions have been simmering between Sánchez’s parliamentary allies and the courts. Much of the ill-feeling from judges can be attributed to a contentious 2022 sexual consent law, overseen by leftist party Podemos, which inadvertently led to the reduction of sentences of hundreds of sex offenders, pitting it against judges it accused of misinterpreting the reform. 

    “We have been called sexist, patriarchal, ‘fascists in a toga’ – everything under the sun,” said María Jesús del Barco Martínez, president of the Professional Association of Magistrates (APM), Spain’s largest organization of judges.

    Sanchez’s recent decision to provide amnesty to those involved in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, which he previously said was not possible, has also led him directly into conflict and reproach from those atop the country’s justice system.

    The government insists the bill is legally watertight. However, before the legislation was presented to parliament, the APM issued a strongly worded statement against it, warning that the amnesty “attacks the very bases of the state and the rule of law.”

    Much of the criticism from the judicial bench comes from the part of the amnesty deal that refers to “lawfare,” the use of legal systems and institutions to hurt opponents, a buzzword for Catalan nationalists, who believe state institutions have acted against them in recent years. Many cite lengthy jail terms given to independence leaders in the wake of the failed illegal Catalan independence drive. 

    The government’s willingness to discuss lawfare – Sánchez has used the word himself recently, albeit when accusing the Popular Party of blocking judicial council appointments – enraged judges.

    Del Barco Martínez said: “There is nothing that interferes more in the work of a judge than politicians telling them what they have to do or checking to see whether what they have done fits in with what politicians want. In a Bolivarian regime you can do that, maybe, but not in a democracy.”

    The clash between Sánchez’s parliamentary allies and the judiciary shows little sign of ending, with both sides feeling aggrieved.

     “We are seeing a clear conflict of powers in this country: there is a battle being waged between the judiciary and the executive,” said Orriols, of Carlos III University. “The judiciary is using its resources to defend itself from what it feels is an attack by parliament and Catalan institutions while the executive feels that the judiciary is overreaching.”

    [ad_2]

    Guy Hedgecoe

    Source link

  • Feijóo’s numbers don’t add up

    Feijóo’s numbers don’t add up

    [ad_1]

    Press play to listen to this article

    Voiced by artificial intelligence.

    MADRID — Alberto Núñez Feijóo may not want to admit it but his hope of being Spain’s next prime minister may have to be lowered.

    On Monday night, the leader of the center-right Popular Party, which won the most votes in last Sunday’s national election in Spain but fell short of securing a governing majority, was left without options to form a government after two key regional parties rejected his overtures.

    To become Spain’s prime minister, a candidate whose party has not secured a governing majority needs to either get the backing of 176 of the total 350 MPs in an initial vote in parliament or wait for a second round of voting to secure a simple majority. MPs can also abstain, which means it can be difficult to determine the exact number of seats needed for a successful bid to form a government.

    In a speech after a meeting of the Popular Party’s executive committee, Feijóo reaffirmed his determination to gather the support needed to advance with his candidacy, adding that as the leader of the party that garnered the most votes, it was his “duty.”

    But his numbers don’t add up. His Popular Party controls 136 seats in parliament — all of its scenarios for victory require the support of the far-right Vox party’s 33 MPs. But because the combined right-wing forces only account for 169 seats, the conservative leader would also need the support of some regional parties.

    While the conservative leader quickly secured the backing of the Navarrese People’s Union — a virtual offshoot of the Popular Party — the rest of his attempts to woo potential allies have gone nowhere, fast.

    Vox Secretary-General Ignacio Garriga on Monday stated his party, with whom the Popular Party aspired to form a government, is not interested in supporting a prime minister that is also backed by the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), one of the groups whose votes Feijóo would need to become prime minster.

    “You can’t have a patriotic vote alongside that of a separatist party,” said Garriga, referring to the PNV. “It’s impossible.”

    Feijóo was similarly rebuffed by the PNV’s Andoni Ortuzar, to whom he sent a chummy text message proposing they sit down to talk.

    Ortuzar ignored Feijóo’s message for most of the day and only responded in the evening, when he called Feijóo to tell him his group was not interested in even meeting to discuss the possibility of a Popular Party-led government, the PNV posted on social media.

    Meanwhile, Fernando Clavijo, secretary-general of the insular Canarian Coalition, told the Spanish media that his party’s sole MP would not back any government that included Vox.

    Feijóo does “not have any possibility to become prime minister,” the group’s outgoing MP, Ana Oramas, said.

    A summer of magical thinking

    The combined rejections from Vox and the regional groups leave Feijóo without realistic options.

    At this point, the only way his bid could succeed is if Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s 122 Socialist MPs agree to not vote against his hypothetical candidacy — a fantasy scenario that has no chance of happening after a campaign in which the Popular Party’s primary message was that it was time to “repeal Sanchismo.”

    Pedro Sánchez — officially in caretaker mode since Sunday’s election — is laying low these days | Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP via Getty Images

    Feijóo seemed determined to not let reality get in his way on Tuesday, insisting the Socialists needed to deal with him instead of negotiating with the left-wing parties and Basque and Catalan separatists, whose votes could allow Sánchez to remain prime minister.

    “Spain holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, we’re negotiating finance rules in Brussels … We need stability, pro-European sentiment and centralism,” he said in Santiago de Compostela.

    “It would be a huge mistake for separatists to govern Spain,” he added. “It’s the traditional parties that have won the greatest amount of votes.”

    While Popular Party spokesperson Borja Sémper rejected the possibility of a grand coalition with the Socialists, in an interview with Spain’s public radio he floated the idea of a minority government led by Feijóo that could forge some sort of pact with the center left to address some of the nation’s “challenges.”

    Deputy Prime Minister María Jesús Montero on Tuesday also rejected any possibility of a deal between the Socialists and the Popular Party, and instead underlined Sánchez’s determination to form a coalition with the left-wing Sumar coalition and secure the support of a hodgepodge of Basque, Catalan and Galician nationalist groups.

    The hope is to secure 172 yeas for Sánchez’s candidacy — slightly more than the 170 nays that will come from the right — and convince Catalan separatist group Junts, which has said it will not back the Socialists, to abstain.

    “A progressive majority has backed the continuance of the Sánchez government’s progressive policies and rejected the Popular Party and Vox’s Trumpian politics,” Montero told Cadena Ser.

    The expat factor

    Although Spain’s election was held last Sunday, the definitive results won’t be known until this Saturday, when the votes of Spaniards living abroad are added to the total. Spanish consular offices around the world have registered over 2 million citizens, but the turnout among them is not yet known.

    While the foreign vote has never dramatically shifted the outcome of a Spanish election, it can alter the results of one or two seats — and that could make a difference in this particular parliament.

    Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Madrid’s Carlos III University, said that while changes could further complicate Sánchez’s plan to remain prime minister, they would almost certainly not improve Feijóo’s chances of taking power.

    The nightmare scenario, of course, would be if enough seats changed hands that the left and right-wing blocs were left controlling the exact same numbers. Simón said that while such a “catastrophic blockage” was highly unlikely, lack of information about participation rates or political leanings of expat voters made it difficult to guess what could happen.

    Discretion is everything

    Sánchez — officially in caretaker mode since Sunday’s election — is laying low these days. It’s a canny strategy that is focusing the public’s attention on Feijóo’s inability to gather support for his candidacy.

    SPAIN NATIONAL PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS

    For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.

    On Tuesday, Sánchez’s spokesperson announced that the traditional summer meeting between the Spanish PM and King Felipe VI in the Marivent Palace in Mallorca had been canceled; the two will meet in Madrid after the holidays. Pundits speculate Sánchez did not want to appear to be getting any special access to the monarch, who will decide who gets to try form Spain’s next government.

    Meanwhile, Deputy PM Montero confirmed that behind-the-scenes talks between the Socialists and the groups whose support Sánchez needs were underway. “A successful negotiation depends on discretion,” Montero said.

    The left-wing Sumar party, Sánchez’s projected coalition partners, has been entrusted with the delicate task of making contact with the Catalan separatist Junts party, whose abstention in a parliamentary vote on Feijóo’s candidacy will be key to the prime minister’s gamble.

    Montero said Sánchez is keen to negotiate with them but no blanket amnesties will be granted — including to its founder Carles Puidgemont, who is sought by Spanish authorities for his role in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum. Likewise, holding an official independence referendum in Catalonia is also off the table.

    “The Socialist Party is a constitutionalist party, so everything we do has to be contemplated within the framework of the constitution,” she said.

    [ad_2]

    Aitor Hernández-Morales

    Source link

  • Spanish election: Sánchez holds off right surge

    Spanish election: Sánchez holds off right surge

    [ad_1]

    MADRID — Incumbent Pedro Sánchez is poised to remain the Spanish prime minister as a result of Sunday’s inconclusive national election in which the center-right Popular Party won the most votes but was left with no clear path to form a government.

    As expected, none of Spain’s major parties secured a governing majority. With 99 percent of the votes tallied, the Popular Party had 136 seats, the Socialists 122, the far-right Vox 33, and the left-wing Sumar 31.

    Prior to the vote, conservative leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo indicated that he would be willing to form a coalition government with Vox, but both parties fell short of the 176 seats needed to control the Spanish parliament.

    There is no scenario in which Spanish MPs would back a minority government composed of the Popular Party and Vox, and Feijóo does not appear to have enough support among the country’s smaller, regional parties to cobble together the backing he would need for minority rule on his own.

    The outcome opens the door to Sánchez remaining in power.

    Together with Yolanda Díaz’s left-wing Sumar coalition, the prime minister’s Socialist Party could form a coalition that controls 153 seats in parliament, but in order to govern he’ll need to forge deals with a variety of political groups with wildly different objectives.

    Sánchez is unlikely to be able to obtain the backing of the 176 MPs needed to be confirmed as prime minister the first time the new parliament discusses the matter, but he could make a bid during the second round of voting, in which the candidate to head the new government has to receive more yays than nays.

    In 2019, Sánchez became prime minister following that same roadmap after making deals with regional parties. But in this high-stakes election, voters opted to back larger parties, leading smaller groups like Teruel Existe to lose their seats.

    That means the Socialists will have to look for support from Basque and Catalan nationalists — among them those belonging to former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont‘s Junts party.

    Puigdemont fled Spain in the immediate aftermath of the 2017 Catalan independence referendum and was subsequently elected to the European Parliament; a top EU court recently stripped his legal immunity, paving the way for his extradition to Spain.

    Junts candidate Míriam Nogueras told the press that her party had “understood the result” and would “take advantage of the opportunity.”

    “This is a possibility for change, to recover unity,” she said. “But we will not make Pedro Sánchez president in exchange for nothing.”

    Over 37 million Spaniards were registered to vote in this election, which was framed as a referendum on Sánchez. The tight race meant the stakes were incredibly high, with Spain facing the possibility of ending up with a government with far-right ministers for the first time since the death of Francisco Franco.

    That could have signaled a wider sea-change in Europe ahead of next year’s European Parliament election and given fuel to right-wing forces that want the EU to take more hardline stances on everything from climate policy to migration.

    With 33 seats, the far-right Vox party remains the third-largest political group in the Spanish parliament, but this election has seen it shrink from the 52 seats it secured in 2019, indicating the group may be losing steam.

    At the Socialist Party headquarters in Madrid on Sunday night, euphoric supporters cheered Sánchez while shouting “¡No pasarán!,” the anti-fascist slogan used by Spain’s legitimate government in its struggle against Franco’s forces during the Spanish Civil War.

    Despite being held in the middle of the summer and in the midst of a heatwave, some 24 million Spaniards voted in person, while a record 2.4 million opted for mail-in voting.

    [ad_2]

    Aitor Hernández-Morales

    Source link