Judges and Prosecutors Begin Three-Day Strike Against Government Reforms

It is the day. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will experience the second general strike of judges and prosecutors against his justice policies in just eight years. In 2018, with Dolores Delgado as Minister of Justice before being appointed a year later as Attorney General, their demands were for salary and professional improvements, greater judicial independence, and more autonomy for the Public Prosecutor's Office. Now, the demands are similar—except for the salary increase—though focused on the controversial reforms developed by Minister Félix Bolaños, mainly concerning access to both professional careers and the Organic Statute of the Prosecutor's Office.

The strike, called for this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday by five of the seven associations of judges and prosecutors—only the two with a progressive orientation are excluded—will gauge the level of discontent in courts and tribunals. On November 19, 2018, more than 4,200 professionals from both careers joined the total strike, with a follow-up of almost 61% in the judiciary and nearly 39% in the Public Prosecutor's Office. The organizers hope to surpass these figures this time, at least at the start of the protest.

With the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the Attorney General emphasizing that the current regulations do not support the strike of those serving as state officials, the organizers have planned minimum services to ensure, among other services, on-call duties, actions with detainees, urgent precautionary measures, corpse removals, searches, or cases affecting vulnerable people. Meanwhile, professional associations plan a first assessment of the strike this Tuesday at noon.

Instead of changing a single comma of its draft bills to try to reach an agreement with the professionals calling these strikes, the Government has demanded that the CGPJ take measures to deduct the corresponding salary from those judges and prosecutors participating in these protests. To do this, it has relied on the Council's own criteria, which it has been defending since 2009, arguing that they would not have the right to strike, regardless of their motivation. This was reiterated on Monday, demanding that the Ministry of Justice be informed of those who do not attend their jobs.

The ministry already deducted salaries in 2018, for the first time, from members of both professional careers who led the aforementioned strike. However, the National Court, after studying the appeal of a judge who challenged that decision, concluded that the Government could not withhold part of their salary by citing the strikes and forced it to return the deducted amount.

In its report on one of the controversial reforms of the Executive that motivate the sector's protests, in this case, the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Judiciary makes several important objections, including that the Judicial Police—for example, the UCO of the Civil Guard conducting investigations in the 'Koldo case', those of the wife and brother of President Pedro Sánchez, or that of the Attorney General—would come under the Prosecutor's Office, something the governing body of judges considers exceeds "the proper scope of an organic statute" and "projects onto a personal scope that transcends that of the members" of the Prosecutor's Office.

This is seen as a decisive step in the Government's strategy to remove the instruction of cases from judges and magistrates, a competence currently held, and leave it in the hands of prosecutors, largely imitating the Anglo-Saxon model. Thus, among other things, the chief prosecutor of each territory would appoint the prosecutors responsible for each investigation.

This draft bill, along with the Organic Law for the Expansion and Strengthening of the Judicial and Prosecutorial Careers—which is criticized for contributing to the deprofessionalization of the judiciary—has already been dubbed 'Bolaños laws' and, according to critics, will decisively contribute to reducing judicial independence, as well as failing to resolve the "real" problems of justice. Despite this widespread rejection in the sector, the minister insists on proceeding with them and, after their approval in the coming weeks by the Council of Ministers, they will be brought to Parliament where he will seek the necessary support for their final approval.

From the Council, it is also criticized in its report that the changes intended to be made in the Public Prosecutor's Office do not guarantee its "character as an independent body". something that, although not explicitly stated in the Constitution, is "inherent in the constitutional regulation of the institution". Additionally, it censures the removal or alteration of several attributions of the Fiscal Council, "denaturalizing" its current function as a counterbalance to the Attorney General, whose term is valued for being extended beyond the legislature, although it misses an explicit prohibition preventing the Government from giving him indications, instructions, or direct orders.