Of the 500 deputies, 399 were not members of the previous composition of the Chamber of Deputies, so the opposition legislators unsuccessfully demanded that they fulfill their legislative functions and return to the path of open parliament, discussion in committees and ruling until it reaches the plenary session, but the entire process in this 66th Legislature.
The opposition’s protest was in vain. The first vote they lost in this new Legislature was an economic vote (by a show of hands), in which they opposed the agenda, which included declaring the judicial reform opinion public.
In the absence of the president of the board of directors, the acting president, Deputy Sergio Gutiérrez Luna, made this declaration, in accordance with the regulations of the Chamber of Deputies.
In the absence of the president of the board of directors, the acting president, Deputy Sergio Gutiérrez Luna, made the declaration in accordance with the regulations of the Chamber of Deputies.
He then called for a session next Tuesday, the day on which the discussion of the ruling will begin, thereby ignoring the resolution of two judges who ordered Congress to stop the process of judicial reform, although they expressly ordered not to submit it to the state congresses for approval.
Prior to this procedure, by agreement of the benches in the Political Coordination Board (Jucopo), a mini-debate was held to establish positions on the procedure, without yet discussing the content of the ruling.
The opposition refused to give publicity and thus start the process of judicial reform, but each of those benches followed different strategies: the PRI and PAN asked to respect the judges’ order, but the National Action Party (PAN) held the debate while the tricolor withdrew; Citizen Movement (MC) also opposed the judicial reform.
Deputy Agustín Rodríguez Torres, from the PAN, demanded that the court order not be disregarded: “The PAN vote is against the order of the day because we are not going to violate the suspensions that have been granted by federal and district courts.”
He then went on to say that 399 of them are new deputies and that they were not present in the last Legislature: “We were not here nor were we part of the three forums in March and April. We were also not part of the nine forums that were held abruptly and under social pressure, in a hasty manner a few months ago. We do not support that with 12 forums they pretend to say that the citizens of 32 states were heard,” he claimed.
Rubén Moreira, coordinator of the PRI, led his party to leave the chamber in protest against the decision to go ahead with the reform plans.
“Just as we have respected the decision made by an electoral court on the distribution of seats – because beyond being against it, we know that it is a legally constituted authority – we believe that we cannot go to a session to debate the ruling, because there are two suspensions of two judges. And therefore, I inform you that we are going to withdraw,” he said.
Without referring to the judges’ order, Pablo Vázquez Ahued, from Movimiento Ciudadano, asked that the ruling on “the so-called judicial reform” be returned to the Justice and Constitutional Affairs committees so that the deputies of this legislature can analyze and rule on these changes.
The orange legislator said that this “is unprecedented and a truly sad act of submission.”
