The decision by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) to unanimously approve the two required new members of the Constitutional Court resolves one of the the Spanish state's thorniest institutional crises. After the nasty insults traded between the Socialists (PSOE) and the People's Party (PP) in recent weeks, it turns out that it was all theatre and that the agreement was much easier than what each side preached to maintain loyalty in its own ranks. The conservative judge César Tolosa and retired Supreme Court justice María Luisa Segoviano, considered a feminist, relatively progressive and independent, were chosen in a unanimous vote that can be read as a victory for Pedro Sánchez over Alberto Núñez Feijóo. To this ticket of two judges we must add the other two already approved by the Spanish government, the members that the executive are legally required to nominate, the former minister Juan Carlos Campo and the former high official in the prime minister's department Laura Díez, with the addition of whom, the overall balance of the Constitutional Court, after allowing for those entering and those retiring, adds up to a majority in favour of the current Spanish government between the so-called conservatives and progressives.
After several months of breaking the law, the episode of the Constitutional Court concludes. Pedro Sánchez has shown, once again, that he has more lives than a cat. Good enough to perform in a three-ring circus, he can give his captors the slip even when seemingly well tied-up and, like it or not, his ability to take matters to the limit, with an attitude that seems suicidal and, turning everything on its head, ends up working out for him. Someone once told me that to understand Sánchez you had to start by knowing that the Spanish prime minister had already returned from the dead - a reference to his dismissal from and return to the position of PSOE general secretary - and that, from there on, he has nothing to lose, since everything that follows is a bonus. The truth is that whether or not this assessment is more or less correct, the Constitutional Court will be progressive, when the stakes were not clearly in his favour. And maybe, in the end - who knows? - the dreaded modification of the law of the Constitutional Court that was intended to change the rules on the election of its members in the legislative chambers, going from a three-fifths to a simple majority, will end up as waste paper.
Sánchez, the juggler, closes the year having overcome the attempts to block him by, first, the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), then, the judges, and finally, the economic recession. On all three fronts, the scene is better than a few months ago. He has resolved the sedition question, as Europe asked him to. He has resolved the Constitutional Court, as Europe forced him to do. He has breathed fresh air into the Spanish economy, with the anti-crisis measures approved this Tuesday by the Spanish government, which abolish VAT on basic foodstuffs, lower VAT on others and incorporate a one-off payment of 200 euros for shopping, all this after last week The Economist magazine ranked Spain as the OECD country with the fourth-best evolution in 2022. And he is set to preside over the European Union during the second half of next year, a situation that will occur for the fifth time in history after those of 1989, 1995, 2002 and 2010. A scenario, in short, that was hardly contemplated at the beginning of the year, and we'll see what influence it all ends up having on the next Spanish elections, which are to be held between end of 2023 and the first two months of 2024.
And in the strictly Catalan chapter, he is bragging that the Catalan independence movement no longer worries Spaniards while ignoring the recent proposal of president Aragonès in which he set out a structure for a new independence referendum. "He can claim what he wants, but it won't happen", was his sentence to conclude the debate. Nor will he bring together the dialogue table between the Spanish and Catalan governments, as he had promised, before December 31st. It is unlikely to meet again and the deadlines to do so will be stretched and stretched until next May's municipal elections are skipped. The tap has been turned off without anyone knowing very clearly if it was ever open and everyone is approaching elections.