Constitutional Court throws out Catalonia’s claim of bias against chief justice

A plenary session of the Constitutional Court on Tuesday threw out an objection raised by the Catalan regional government to the chief justice of the court, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, stemming from his membership of the conservative Popular Party (PP).

Nine of out of the 11 members of the court ruled that the fact De los Cobos was at one time a card-carrying member of the PP, something he hid from parliament while being vetted on his suitability for membership of the court, was not incompatible with his participation in legal decisions taken by that court.

Catalonia claimed De los Cobos is biased toward the region, which has embarked on a controversial bid for self-rule, as witnessed by comments he made in a speech delivered in 2005 in which he said that Catalans “had been taught to despise Spanish culture,” adding that the basic charter that enshrines Catalonia’s rights and obligations as an autonomous region was a manifestation of that contempt.

After four hours of debate, only two of De los Cobos peers argued that he lacked the necessary impartiality to serve as a magistrate.

The chief justice, who was a paid-up member of the PP from 2008 to 2011, was not present at the debate. He had argued that the Constitution only bars magistrates from serving as such if they are party officials rather than just members of that party.