Outrage among APM judges against Gallardón for leaving them out of the CGPJ

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The confrontation between the Minister of Justice, Alberto Ruíz Gallardón, and the Professional Association of the Judiciary (APM), which brings together the country's conservative magistrates, is maximum. The most obvious proof is the recent renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the governing body of judges. In this renewal, and despite being the majority association, the APM positions are conspicuous by their absence. Logically, the Council will be controlled by conservative ideology . Also the Permanent Commission, the hard core of the organization, which was elected this Friday and will have a conservative majority. Two magistrates plus the president, Carlos Lesmes, in front of two progressives and a Catalan nationalist. But the problem is that none of those conservative magistrates have been proposed by the APM, even though they belong to it, but rather they go on their own. So that they could do so, Gallardón did them a great favor: for the first time he lowered the number of endorsements necessary to run for the CGPJ to only 25 . “You get those in one morning by drinking coffee,” say judicial sources.

In this way, the internal elections that were held among the judges so that, from then on, the politicians could elect the magistrates who were going to sit on the Council remained a dead letter . The APM magistrates who obtained the most  Phone Number List votes, such as Rocío Pérez Puig , were inexplicably left out. However, Carmen Llombart, who was one of those who obtained the fewest votes in those internal elections among the judges, has entered the Council. Because? “Because her friend Fernando de Rosa , former vice president of the Council and magistrate who has always defended Gallardón, has defended her,” legal sources explain. Indignation The result of all this is that in the APM they are outraged with Gallardón. “Relationships are broken,” say unofficial sources of the association. In the APM they feel deceived by the minister after this association did not follow the strikes of judges, prosecutors and justice secretaries in February of this year. Indeed, the APM did not support the judges' strike of February 21, 2013 . Some magistrates took to the streets that day individually, but the association as such blew up that day of protest against the rates.



For them it meant great support for Gallardón, who has now not rewarded the renewal of the CGPJ . Revenge In any case, in the sector it is assumed that what happened with the APM is nothing more than Gallardón's revenge against this association for what happened in 2012 with Carlos Dívar. The former president of the Supreme Court and the CGPJ had to resign for paying private travel bills with public funds on June 21, 2012 after a complaint from the progressive José Manuel Gómez Benítez . In that battle Gallardón worked hard to save Dívar. But he lost. And he lost largely because in the CGPJ plenary vote that approved Dívar's resignation, five members of the APM voted in favor, ignoring Gallardón's position. Only Fernando de Rosa supported Dívar and, therefore, Gallardón. Now, a friend of Fernando de Rosa is the only one from the APM on the Council. Logically, Gallardón took note of that affront by the APM and, after Dívar's resignation, appointed a progressive, member of the rival association, Judges for Democracy , as president of the Supreme Court and the CGPJ . This is Gonzalo Moliner . It was only the first sign of the minister's revenge. This Friday, with the renewal of the Council, he has completed the second. It remains to be seen if there will be a third.