The agreement between the Partido Popular and PSOE to choose the members of Spain's General Council of the Judiciary, and even its president, breaching that which is set out by the Organic Law of the Judiciary, which establishes that it's the members of the council who choose their highest-ranking colleague, is another outrage which increases the disrepute recently accumulated and worsens the already very damaged image of Spanish justice. Another beating for the independence of the judiciary. It didn't seem possible that PP and PSOE would utterly shamelessly do something expressly prohibited by the law, but, with the nomination of judge Manuel Marchena as new president of the Supreme Court and General Council, it's clear they've preferred to project their authority in the renovation they've carried out over leaving the free choice to the decision of the judges and magistrates.
The choice of Marchena as president of the Supreme Court is a triumph for the most hardline wing of the Spanish judiciary. He's not just another judge, rather he's been behind many of the most controversial decisions of recent years. In his position as president of the second chamber of the Supreme Court, he's all over the whole investigation against the Catalan political prisoners and the exiles carried out by judge Pablo Llarena. Marchena, however, is attributed with a much more important role than that of mere companion or supervisor to the referendum case: decisive action when it can to whipping up the whole legal strategy by which the Catalan political prisoners can be accused of rebellion.
Now, in his position as president of the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court, he was going to preside over the referendum trial and be the reporting judge. His promotion to his new role deactivates the toughest exponent, the one who embodies the view which is most committed to the accusations of nonexistent rebellion and misuse of public funds. It's very possible that, between placing him at the head of the Supreme Court or keeping him as the main judge in the referendum trial, PSOE went with the first option even without knowing for certain whether the change of magistrate can ensure, when it comes to it, an advantage, if it opts to make the moves it has within its reach to have prosecutors' charges of rebellion fall away. It is, however, a coin toss since the conservatives won't have a majority on the judicial body, nine of the twenty members, but although the others fall within the progressive sector, in the world of law that has to come with significant footnotes.
Marchena's role in the referendum trial will be occupied by magistrate Andrés Martínez Arrieta, he has a less intense media profile but was also trained, like an entire generation of judges, during the years of terrorism in the Basque country. From that period there is a case of uninvestigated torture and a sentence from the European Court of Human Rights against Spain weighing on him. However, the far right has always been reticent about him and has never forgiven him that, when former PM Felipe González was called to testify as a witness in the Filesa case, he shook his hand at the entrance to the Supreme Court. Who knows whether someone has thought that for the coming times, a Martínez Arrieta would be better than a Marchena. Or, simply, whether PSOE has played its hand badly. In any case, for the Catalan political prisoners, a priori, the change of hands of the chamber is unlikely to be for the worse.