He also announced his intention to change the way the 12 judges called "vocales" of the General Council of the Judiciary were elected, returning to the old direct election system by the judges, dropped in 1995 (with a slight modification passed in 2001 during the former PP government, headed by José María Aznar, thanks to the consensus reached with the PSOE, that established the election by the Courts from a list of 31 candidates submitted by the associations of judges) because the 12 "vocales" were filled up with only one association of judges, the prevalent and conservative Professional Association of Magistrates.