The integration of the Council of the Magistracywhich sparked a institutional conflict between Congress and the Judiciary, will begin to unravel this week with a decision by the Supreme Court of Justice to deal with the per saltum appeal filed by Senator Louis Judge to stop the designation of the camper Martin Donate they said to THE NATION judicial sources and close to the case. From then on, they will reaffirm their original decision to annul the appointment of the official senator.
The Judicial Council is made up of 20 members: its head, the president of the Court, Horace Rosatti, and the representatives of the Executive Branch (one), judges (four), lawyers (four), academics (two) and legislators (eight). This last group has not yet been put into office in the Council: there are four senators and four deputies whose appointment determined the conflict between Cristina Kirchner and her troops with the Court. The dispute also caused a complete breakdown of dialogue between the Frente de Todos and Juntos por Cambio, to the point that the opposition blocked the re-election of Cecilia Moreau as president of the Chamber of Deputies.
The political fight is to determine the composition for the next four years of the body that chooses the judges, controls and removes them.
The last time the plenary session of the Judicial Council met was in June. Since then, it has not approved lists of judges to fill the vacancies in the Judiciary, which already covers a third of the courts, nor has it voted on sanctions for magistrates who are waiting for their future to be decided, as Walter Bentoa federal judge from Mendoza accused of collecting bribes from prisoners and of illegally enriching himself.
On November 18, the mandates expired and the Supreme Court already swore in the new academic advisors Hugo Galderisi and William Tamarit (who would respond to the ex-counselor Diego Molea); the lawyers Miguel Piedecasas (UCR), Héctor Recalde (Front of All), Jimena de la Torre (Pro) and Fernanda Vázquez (also linked to Molea); the judges Diego Barroetavena and Agustina Diaz Cordero (from the Bordó list, critical of the Government), Alberto Lugones (from the Celeste list, closer to Kirchnerism) and Alejandra Provitola (from the Judicial Compromise list). He too was sworn in again. Geronimo Ustarrozrepresentative of the Executive Branch and brother of Minister Eduardo de Pedro.
It still remains for four senators and four representatives to take office, who according to the law must represent the majority bloc (two in each chamber), the first minority (one) and the second minority (one). The Court handed down a decision in which it said that Cristina Kirchner cheated this year by splitting the Frente de Todos bloc in two to keep the two representatives of the majority and a third senator for the second minority.
After November 18, Kirchnerism in the Senate repeated the maneuver, described by the Court as a “ruse” lacking in “good faith”and proposed to the camper Mariano Recalde (CABA) and the Kirchnerist Inés Pilatti de Vergara (Chaco) for the Frente Nacional y Popular bloc (21 members), and the camporista Martin Donate (Río Negro) by the Unidad Ciudadana block (14 members). The opposition sent the name of the senator Eduardo Vischi (Corrientes) by the UCR bloc (18 members) and the Louis Judge (Córdoba) for the Pro block (9 members). But the decree that the Senate sent to the Council and the Court again left out Judge and kept the name of Doñate.
With the first ruling of the Court in hand, Judge went to Justice to prevent them from naming Doñate and demand that they take an oath to him. In the first instance, the judge Maria Alejandra Biotti rejected your requestbut the Judge appealed and also filed an appeal for through the forest to arrive directly before the Court without waiting for the decision of the Court of Appeals in Federal Administrative Litigation.
The Court judges plan to unlock the issue in this week’s agreement and reaffirm what they said when they annulled Doñate’s appointment. That you cannot cheat and divide the bloc to violate the will of the law, which is to ensure the proportional representation of political minorities in the Judicial Council.
That is why they could try the appeal of through the forest of Judge and his substitute, the senator of Pro Humberto Schiavoni. In their 30-page brief, the senators said that the Court should pronounce immediately and that there is a danger in delay Well, “for months Senator Doñate fraudulently occupied an institutional role, carrying out acts for which he lacked legitimacy.” And they demanded the absolute and insane nullity of the Senate decree that appoints Doñate, the unenforceability of the partition of the Frente de Todos bloc for the purposes of integrating the Nation’s Judicial Council, as the Court already said a year ago. month, and order Cristina Kirchner “to comply with designating Judge and Schiavoni as counselors” holder and substitute.
The Court analyzes that it has two business weeks ahead to resolve the matter, at least as far as the Senate is concerned. From the political point of view, the judges have been standing up to the advance of Kirchnerism: they have already done so with rulings in corruption cases and planted a flag with the ruling that annulled the integration of the Council of the Magistracy that Cristina Kirchner devised and returned to the old Council of 20 members chaired by Rosatti.
One of the courtiers confided to his companions at a social gathering in which he participated a few weeks ago that if they did not act at this time to stand before Kirchnerism and regain authority, then it was going to be more difficult. Justice acquired another centrality.
Of course, clearing up the problem of the senator councilors (which the Court has already resolved, since it said a month ago that it is unenforceable to split the Frente de Todos bloc to elect councilors) leaves standing the problem of the deputy councilors. Politics again.
The Court in an agreement already provided that the deputy councilors included in the decree sent by the president of the lower house were going to take an oath. They were Rodolfo Tailhade and Vanessa Sileyfrom the Frente de Todos (118 members); alvaro gonzalezfrom Pro (50 members), and Roxana Reyesfrom the UCR (33 members).
But a judge Martin Cormick, close to La Camporaobjected to the appointment of Reyes in an amparo filed by German Martinez, president of the Frente de Todos bloc. With that excuse, Moreau withdrew all the names of the deputy councilors and an institutional scandal of such proportions was created that the opposition and the ruling party were braided with insults in the Chamber of Deputies. In that session, Moreau was to be re-elected as president of the Lower House, but she did not get the necessary votes.
The affected deputies, among them alvaro gonzalez, they resorted to Justice for the Court to take an oath, since the ruling of Reyes does not affect it. González also demanded that the Court interfere in the matter to resolve it.
After Moreau annulled his own decree, today in the Court there is no proposal from the Chamber of Deputies to swear in counselors. Last Friday, at a press conference, the Frente de Todos “demanded” a meeting of the Court. In the courts they shrug their shoulders before the problems caused by politics and they want Justice to solve them.
In the administrative file is the agreement for the deputy councilors to swear in and the note from Moreau withdrawing their names. In addition, there is an appealed appeal from Roxana Reyes for her appointment and another from the block of Together for Change. In parallel, a request for impeachment against Judge Cormick has already been filed in the Judicial Council.
The political fight in the background, between the Frente de Todos y Juntos por el Cambio and between Kirchnerism and the Judiciary overflowed the institutional rails. This week the Court can begin to direct it.