Spanish institutional crisis triggered by legal block of judicial reform

A clash between Spain’s parliament and the constitutional court has triggered an institutional crisis of the kind the country has not seen in more than four decades of democracy.

The court’s decision on Monday to accept an appeal presented by opposition conservatives against a government reform of the judiciary has halted the legislation before its passage through parliament. Last week, the reform, which seeks to make the appointment of senior magistrates easier, received the backing of the leftist majority in Congress, but the court’s ruling means it will not go to the Senate, where it was due to be debated and voted on this Thursday.

Speaking in response to the ruling, Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez described it as “unprecedented in 44 years of democracy”. Although he said his government accepted the decision, he said it was important “to ensure respect for the constitution and the popular will expressed freely in elections”.

Last week, as the conflict was coming to a head, Mr Sánchez had accused the right and far right of colluding in a “crude plot” to thwart parliament, where he and his leftist and nationalist allies have a narrow majority.

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Meritxell Batet, the Socialist speaker of Congress, said the court’s decision had caused “deep concern from the point of view of the correct functioning of the legislative power and the exercise of its constitutional duties”. She warned that the ruling “deepens the danger that the democratic system will lose legitimacy”.

The opposition Popular Party (PP) and other parties on the right had objected to the manner in which the proposed change to the law was presented, as an amendment to an express-speed reform of the criminal code. They have cast this as the latest, most egregious example, of an alleged populist drift by Mr Sánchez.

“Even if you’re Pedro Sánchez you can’t ride roughshod over our democracy and constitution,” said PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who welcomed the court ruling.

“We are in an institutional crisis because of an unprecedented verbal escalation,” he added. “I solemnly request that this verbal escalation, which began when the prime minister spoke of a plot, be defused.”

Commentator José Antonio Zarzalejos, of the right-leaning El Confidencial news site, noted that the constitutional court’s decision was without precedent, although he added that the government’s attempted reform was also highly irregular.

“The government and the prime minister have to stop this spiral of conspiracy theories, which is the next step in a process that puts the constitutional system at risk,” he wrote.

The blocking of the government’s reform means that the renewal of judges in the constitutional court and the country’s judicial supervisory body remains unresolved, extending a crisis which has plagued the judiciary for several years. With the Socialists and PP unable to agree on new appointments, Mr Sánchez’s amendment sought to end the impasse by lowering the parliamentary majority needed to choose new magistrates.

The saga is also likely to undermine further the credibility of the judiciary, which many Spaniards see as politicised and antiquated.

The government’s criminal code reform was highly divisive for other reasons. It included the elimination of the crime of sedition and reductions of sanctions in certain cases for those found guilty of misuse of public funds. Both changes, which are unaffected by the appeal before the constitutional court, are seen as concessions to the pro-independence Catalan government. They could benefit Catalan leaders who have fled the country to avoid prosecution, such as former regional president Carles Puigdemont, or those who have been barred from public office.

Inés Arrimadas, leader of the Ciudadanos party, which refused to take part in the congressional vote, said that “the separatists do not need to declare independence because the [Spanish] government will do it for them”.