Former president Mauricio Macri, whose party has been one of Javier Milei’s most important allies in passing legislation, says PRO will not support the head of state’s bid to impose Supreme Court justices via decree.
On Wednesday, Milei moved forward with a plan to appoint judges Ariel Lijo and Manuel García-Mansilla to fill two vacancies on the nation’s highest tribunal.
The attempt met with a predictable angry reaction from the Peronist and left-wing opposition, but several parties who regularly work with Milei’s La Libertad Avanza caucus in Congress, such as PRO and the Unión Radical Cívica (UCR), have also expressed resistance to the move.
Midweek, Macri voiced his own opinion, calling on the Milei administration to search for consensus. Justifying his stance, he recalled his own failed bid to appoint Carlos Rosenkrantz and Horacio Rosatti in 2015 by decree.
Facing stiff resistance and realising the error of his ways, Macri reversed his decision and the duo later won Senate approval to take up their roles.
“Empirical experience indicates to me that the appointment of judges through a mechanism such as the one used by the Government is not correct. I ratify my position that judges occupying the highest positions in the Judiciary cannot be subject to so much rejection,” expressed Macri on social media.
“Trust in the justice system and institutions is an indispensable condition for the stability of democracy and the prosperity of the country. My position is the majority position within the PRO, as was embodied in the report produced by Fundación Pensar,” concluded the former president in his statement.
The post was accompanied by an opinion of the secretary general of the Public Bar Association of the Federal Capital, Martín Casares.
“The appointment of judges by decree has a negative impact on legal certainty and public confidence in judicial decisions, aggravating the lack of confidence in the Judiciary and damages the rule of law by questioning both the independence and impartiality that should characterise justice,” Casares observed.
Former Supreme Court justice Juan Carlos Maqueda, who retired on December 29 last year, also questioned the move.
“I thought the decree was horrible,” he expressed during an interview with LN+. “The attitude of the Executive branch is horrible,, that three days before the beginning of ordinary sessions [of Congress] it makes this decision.”
“I don’t know where in the Constitution it says so [that this is possible]. This is not so. The files have to continue in the Senate, and there has to continue to be dialogue and search for an agreement. That is the spirit of the Constitution,” remarked the former justice.
International and domestic NGOs, including CELS, Amnesty International Argentina and Human Rights Watch also voiced disapproval.
“President Milei cannot pretend to evade institutional mechanisms simply because he has not obtained the necessary votes in the Senate to appoint his candidates,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director for Human Rights Watch.
CELS described Milei’s actions as “unconstitutional and anti-democratic.”
Milei has argued that the current status of the court – two vacancies from five benches – means it cannot properly function. The President also argued that the Constitution allows him to do so, though constitutional experts heavily dispute this, arguing that the 1994 reform means the Senate must grant approval by a two-thirds majority.
– TIMES/NA
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