After the Government’s attempts to fill vacancies in the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nationthe judge Ricardo Lorenzetti He recalled that, in the last year, the institution operated with only three judges. For this reason, he maintained: “It is very important to integrate it as soon as possible.” Likewise, he ruled out that a possible expansion of the highest court is on the agenda.
“It’s not that it works well, we need the Court to be integrated”said the magistrate, after explaining that the delays that occurred in this matter would be closely related to political issues.
In this sense, the minister criticized the vacancy of existing positions in the judicial system. “There cannot be a justice service without judges, lack of everything,” he reproached, highlighting the work of attorneys and prosecutors in criminal matters. “They are making a great personal effort, because a structure has to be put together,” he pointed out.
During an interview with Luis Novaresioissued by A24Lorenzetti emphasized the need to reinforce democratic life in the face of the advance of authoritarianism in other parts of the world. “Institutions must be changed”he pointed out when explaining that it refers to a change in focus, where these structures are put at the service of society.
From his point of view, this wear and tear translated into the crisis of traditional politics and the lack of citizen participation in elections. “The leadership has lost the basic idea which is to transform reality”, he proposed and called for sustainable policies to recover social trust.
“We are at the end of the cycle. That is very evident because almost the entire political class loses the elections in almost the entire world. It is a political class that makes a speech focused on itself and does not coincide with reality“, expanded the Court magistrate. Likewise, he analyzed that this situation is not only reflected in the low participation at the polls, but also generates a loss of interest of society in the policies. “There is a kind of flight of the population with respect to the traditional State because the very rich leave, the too poor are outside the State, the law of drug traffickers and violence has more presence than that of the State. And the middle class feels very hit,” he portrayed.
Despite this, the magistrate clarified that the reform of the institutions would not imply, for him, a modification of the National Constitution. “I wouldn’t touch herbecause every time we touch the Constitution we can make a disaster and it contains great values such as freedom of expression, the idea of real equality of opportunities,” he deepened.
“We have to work on generating hope. Society is changing, it is a society of people who live alone and trying to save themselves with the little they are given,” he described, moving it to the judicial level and opposing what he called “judicial populism.” And he noted: “We cannot fall into that, we have to apply the Constitution, the laws and impartiality.”
In line with this, Lorenzetti was consulted about the statements of former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in which she denounced being a political prisoner after having been convicted of corruption in the Roads case. “Everyone defends their position as they want, right? I think there is a tendency to say that institutions are partial, it is all institutional deterioration“, he analyzed when returning to the topic.
“I consider that it is an opinion and nothing more. My obligation is not to pay attention to that,” said the minister, highlighting that the case in which the former president was involved would be another sign of the deterioration of the democratic system.
Finally, Lorenzetti returned to the issue of institutions and expressed: “We have to deal with concrete problems and see how they are solved.” In this sense, he highlighted that the primary objective would be “recover democracy as an effective system”to stop the advance of authoritarianism.
