This Tuesday, the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) designated to Cesar Tolosa and Maria Luisa Segoviano as new magistrates of the Constitutional Court (TC). In this way, the balance of forces in the court of guarantees changes, with seven judges of progressive sensitivity and four conservatives, and with a vacancy still pending, which corresponds to appoint the Senate.
The four new magistrates of the TC (Tolosa, Segoviano, Juan Carlos Campo and Laura Díez) will replace the current president, Pedro Gonzalez-Trevijanoa Antonio Narvaez and Santiago Martínez-Vares, the three conservatives, in addition to the progressive Juan Antonio Xiol, current vice president. These are the 11 magistrates that will form part of the new Constitution.
Candid Count-Pumpido
Member of the progressive sectorwas State Attorney General for seven years with the Socialist Government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and has been a magistrate of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court. He is one of the judges who can preside over the constitutional Court in this new stage.
Count-Pumpido He was also one of the founders of the Progressive Association Judges and Judges for Democracy. In the TC, he has coordinated the processing of the appeals filed against the legal case of the process from Catalonia in 2017, a matter in which he strove to maintain the unanimity of all the magistrates, but from which he finally decided to voluntarily withdraw due to the challenges presented against him by those convicted and fled.
Maria Luisa Balaguer
also of progressive wing, is a professor of Constitutional Law. She was a director of the Consultative Council of Andalusia and, as Count-Pumpido, entered the TC at the request of the Senate in 2017, so she can also run for president. She has issued very critical individual opinions, such as when she disagreed with the sentence that endorsed the returns of migrants in hota practice that, he said, “criminalizes” them and prevents them from defending their human rights.
balaguer He has also spoken publicly against the recent decision of the TC of brake very cautiously and at the request of the PP, the parliamentary processing of two amendments that changed the way in which its magistrates are elected. Both she and her fellow progressives have cast a dissenting opinion.
Immaculate Montalban
third name of progressive third. She is a specialist in violence against women and equality policies, she was a magistrate of the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia and came to the TC in 2021 proposed by the PSOE. She is a member of Judges and Judges for Democracy, she also went through the CGPJwhere he was vocal to Socialists’ proposal between 2008 and 2013 and chaired its Observatory on Domestic and Gender Violence.
Ramon Saez Valcarcel
Saez Valcarcel is also a member of progressive sector. Magistrate of the TC from 2021 to United We Can proposal, specifically from Izquierda Unida, after having been a judge of the National Court. There he was the author of the acquittal for the siege of the Parliament of Catalonia in 2011. Before that, he passed through the CGPJ, between 1996 and 2001, also at the proposal of IU.
Juan Carlos Field
fifth name of progressive group and one of the best known faces. A career magistrate, he has had a long political experiencewhere he has held positions in the Junta de Andalucía and in the central government, hand in hand with PSOE. Secretary of State for Justice between 2009 and 2011 with Francisco Caamaño in the Ministry, he became Justice minister a decade later, with the Government of Pedro Sánchez.
After his departure of the Executive in the summer of 2021, attributed to wear and tear due to the granting of pardons to several convicted of the processhe returned to his position as magistrate in the National audiencewhere he has had to abstain from numerous causes due to his time in the Governmentwhich has now appointed him a member of the TC.
Laura Diez
Together with Campo, it has been elected in November by the Executive to be part of the TC. This professor of Constitutional Law from the University of Barcelona has combined a long teaching career with his institutional trajectory, with positions in the UN, the European Commission or the OSCE. In 2020 she was appointed general director of Constitutional Affairs and Legal Coordination of the Ministry of the Presidency and last April the Parliament of Catalonia elected her a member of the Council of Statutory Guarantees, at the proposal of PSC, Junts and ERC.
Maria Luisa Segoviano
Latest progressive name, although proposed by the conservative sector of the CGPJ. A specialist in labor law, this magistrate broke glass ceilings two years ago, in 2020, when she became the first woman to preside over a Chamber in the Supreme Courtthat of the Social, where he has worked to adapt the labor legislation to the social reality, as for example, in the sentences of the rider law.
Another of the main demands of segovian has been the obligation to judge with gender perspective. He has also raised his voice against the absence of women in the judicial leadership. She retired a few months ago and now the same CGPJ that appointed her president of the Supreme Chamber, has appointed her a member of the TC.
Ricardo Enriquez
first name of conservative sector. Specialist in Contentious-Administrative jurisdiction, he was a magistrate and president of the Chamber in the Supreme Court. He was proposed in 2014 to enter the TC and his inauguration returned the majority to the conservative sector. He remained in the position for the term of office that remained to be fulfilled by the magistrate he replaced, Francisco Hernando, and in 2016 he returned to be appointed at the proposal of the PP for the Senate’s turn.
Concepcion Espejel
Also a conservative, she was a member of the General Council of the Judiciary at the proposal of PP and later a magistrate of the National Court, where she came to preside over its Criminal Chamber. There she has judged cases such as that of the rapper Valtònyc or the mayor Josep Lluis Trapero, who was finally acquitted against her criteria and thanks to the votes of other magistrates. She was elected along with Enrique López, now advisor to the Executive of the PP in the Madrid’s communityto judge the Gürtel case and that of the Bárcenas papers, but both were removed by the Criminal Chamber considering that they were not impartial due to their affinity with the popular ones.
Enrique Arnaldo
Arnaldo He is a lawyer of the Cortes and also was part of the CGPJ between 1996 and 2001, to PP proposal. A lawyer specializing in public, constitutional and administrative law, he presided over the Administrative Court of Sports for four years, a position he left in 2018. His entry into the TC was highly criticized as he was considered a profile very close to the popular.
Cesar Tolosa
Conservative name, proposed by the CGPJ. Cesar Tolosa until now he was president of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court. From there he has tried to manage the flood of resources derived from the coronavirus pandemic. Before reaching the Supreme Court, he presided over the Superior Court of Justice of Cantabria. After the appointments of Tolosa and Segoviano, there is still a position to be filled in the TCafter the magistrate Montoya resigned in July for health reasons. The appointment corresponds to Senate.
