Jose Manuel Bermudezmayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, announced last Wednesday that would make the legal services of the Consistory “immediately” explore any judicial avenue to “overthrow” the amnesty law.
In his intervention, José Manuel Bermúdez indicated that this motion not only reflects the feelings of the majority represented in the City Council, but also of a large part of the citizens (magistrates, notaries, judges, lawyers, professional associations, social and economic groups) who have publicly expressed their “absolute” rejection of this organic law proposal that was finally registered by the PSOE last Monday.
Gerardo Pérez, renowned lawyer and professor of Constitutional Law at the University of La Laguna, has expressed in Herrera at COPE Tenerife that there is no “legal margin” for such a resource. He explained that local administrations can only go to the Constitutional Court if a legal norm invades their powers, which does not apply in the case of an amnesty law.
“Local administrations have the capacity to go to the Constitutional Court to challenge normal legal status only if they consider that they invade their legal powers, in order to defend their municipal autonomy. An amnesty law has no effect at all, the only ones who can appeal the law are 50 deputies, 50 senators, the Ombudsman and, subsequently, the courts and tribunals that have to apply it may appeal it to the Supreme Court.“, Perez pointed out..
The lawyer and professor admitted that, in his opinion, he sees “no margin” for the action announced by José Manuel Bermúdez: “The margin is null beyond the fact that he wants to direct some writing to those who do have that legitimacy, such as the Ombudsman. of the People, which would be the one that would appeal, in no case the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife or any other.
Gerardo Pérez indicated that “it is not necessary to waste a lot of time” for the legal services to write what was requested by José Manuel Bermúdez: “It is written relatively easily. I think it is quite clear, but there is no legal impediment to consulting with legal services, another thing is that a political criticism be made about the efficiency with which they make use of those legal resources and can dedicate them to other issues, but that is something more political than legal.”
