In May 2025 a Supreme Court judge argued in a newspaper that justice must free itself from political shackles. He is right, but does not go far enough. Politicisation of the judiciary is not the disease but a symptom: the real malady is the submission of every institution to interests that have nothing to do with the law.
A necessary but incomplete diagnosis
On 12 May 2025, under the headline "Justice vs Politics", a judge of the Supreme Court reflected on judicial independence and the urgent need to separate courts from parties. The message matters and we share it. But it forces an awkward question: if there is already a body, the General Council of the Judiciary, created precisely to shield judges from political interference, why are we still talking about the same thing?
The answer is unsettling. If the mechanisms designed to guarantee judicial independence do not work, we must ask what is happening to the other institutions that should be safeguarding the rule of law. Spain's problem is not limited to the politicisation of justice; it is graver and more structural: a widespread submission of institutions to interests alien to legality.
Politicisation as a symptom
When the judiciary's governing body falls into the hands of the parties, the disease is no longer confined to the courts but affects the whole system. The legislature shares out the appointments, the executive negotiates them and part of the judiciary accepts the rules of the game. The three powers that should be watching one another end up protecting one another instead.
A legal framework that erodes, rather than fosters, equality before the law contributes to this:
- the system of "aforamientos", which grants numerous public office-holders a privileged jurisdiction;
- the lack of transparency in the selection of senior institutional office-holders;
- the privileges of certain bodies that escape ordinary scrutiny.
In that context it is hardly surprising that some judicial decisions appear to be influenced by political factors or outside interests. But that is merely the surface of a much larger problem.
The complaint to Parliament
On 11 May 2025 our association filed a complaint with the Congress of Deputies calling for the repeal of the organic laws that grant unjustified privileges to certain bodies and institutions, with particular reference to judges. It argues that these laws are incompatible with the European legal framework that emerged from the Treaty of Lisbon, in force since 2009, which enshrines equality and non-discrimination as fundamental principles of the Union.
Procedural privileges such as the special jurisdiction of senior officials do not merely clash with those principles: they contradict the equality before the law proclaimed by Article 14 of the Spanish Constitution and Article 20 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. When laws are not applied equally to everyone, regardless of political or social status, the justice system loses its legitimacy and the perfect breeding ground for corruption and abuse of power is created.
It is not enough for judges to be independent of politics; no one, judges included, may stand above the law.
Reforms that go to the root
Focusing solely on the politicisation of justice means stopping at the symptom. What is needed is comprehensive reform that tackles the causes:
- Abolish "aforamientos" and other unjustified procedural privileges.
- Reform the election of the judiciary's governing body so that it reflects merit rather than party carve-ups, as the European Commission has been urging in its Rule of Law Reports.
- Subject every institution to effective, transparent and verifiable oversight.
- Review the organic laws that entrench inequalities in the light of EU law.
The real challenge
Politics and justice must be kept apart, but that separation will only be real if the entire institutional system rests on the principles of the rule of law, leaving no room for privileges or immunities that weaken public trust. The newspaper article and ACCYDED's complaint should serve as the starting point for a serious debate on the nature of the crisis Spain is going through.
That is the challenge: to restore equality before the law and ensure that institutions serve all citizens, not private or partisan interests. Submission is not an inevitable fate. It is enough for sufficient citizens to decide to stop accepting it.