CGPJ suspends judge Vidal for three years
Expulsion reduced to suspension after seven hours of wrangling between divided judicial council
A three-year suspension from exercising as a judge is the punishment handed out by the Consejo General del Poder Judicial (CGPJ) to Santiago Vidal for drawing up a proposed Catalan constitution and for having declared himself in favour of the sovereignty process.
Despite the severity of the sanction, the deep internal division within the council meant that its long session yesterday did not lead to the adoption of the initial proposal to expel the judge.
Although it seemed as if the conservative wing of the council would have their way in removing the judge completely, after seven hours of deliberation an alternative solution was seen to be more desirable. The result was a suspension for not remaining faithful to the Spanish constitution.
As a result, the division within the CGPJ avoided a fracture between the conservatives and progressives. With 12 conservatives against 9 progressives, the latter threatened to make individual votes public if the suspension was not accepted.