The plenary session of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) finally elected Isabel Perelló on Tuesday as the new president of the governing body of judges and the Supreme Court, making her the first woman to lead the High Court. The balance sheets within the Government and the main opposition party point in the same direction: satisfaction because the nomination puts an end, after five plenary sessions, to the deadlock in which the CGPJ found itself, whose members agreed yesterday to integrate new candidates to the initially agreed list.
“Spain is now returning to its institutional normality“, declared the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, on social networks, where he conveyed to the judge his “most sincere congratulations” for her appointment as president of the CGPJ and of the Supreme Court, the first woman to hold this position. “Equality is the backbone of democracy,” stressed Sánchez.
For her part, the government spokesperson, Pilar Alegriadescribed as “very positive” the election of Supreme Court Justice Isabel Perelló, associated for more than thirty years with the Judges for Democracy, of the progressive bloc. “It is a very important day for our country because we are returning to the normality of a construction body such as the Judiciary,” said the minister’s spokesman at the press conference after the Council of Ministers.
In the same line as the head of the Executive, Alegría stressed that for the first time, a woman chairs the board of judges and the TS, also highlightingher progressive profile, that she is Catalan and “her impeccable careerwith a magnificent CV.” But the most important thing, the government spokesman said, is to “restore normality to the judicial system after so many years.”
The appointment comes just forty-eight hours after the opening ceremony of the judicial year that the King will preside over. “On Thursday, when the judicial process begins, this act will symbolize the end of a crisis that has lasted for many years and will demonstrate that there are already three powers of the State that are functioning properly,” Alegría assured.
Also the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Felix Bolanoscelebrated on the social network“good news” of the election of the magistrate, whom he congratulated, as well as all those who believe “in Justice as a public service”. “Very happy. For the first time in history, a woman will preside over the CGPJ and the Supreme Court,” said the head of the Justice portfolio.
Very happy. For the first time in history, a woman will preside over the CGPJ and the Supreme Court.
Great news. Congratulations to Isabel Perelló and to all of us who believe in justice as a public service!https://t.co/4TdSq5OiDG
– Félix Bolaños (@felixbolanosg) September 3, 2024
The Second Vice-President and Minister of Labour and Social Economy, Yolanda Diazalso congratulated Perelló on his nomination. “This election is not just a good news for womenThe minister declared on the same social network, where she did not miss the opportunity to throw a dart at the Popular Party: “[Una gran noticia] also for the prestige and normality of such an important body that the PP has been blocking for more than 5 years.
Congratulations Isabel Perelló on your election as the first female president of the CGPJ.
This election is not only great news for women, but also for the prestige and normality of such an important body that the PP has been blocking for more than 5 years. https://t.co/sRdlkA71Zz
– Yolanda Diaz (@Yolanda_Diaz_) September 3, 2024
A “pressure-free” decision
The spokesman for the main opposition party, Miguel Telladoavoided making an assessment of Perelló’s progressive profile and limited himself, however, to congratulating himself on the fact that the appointment took place “without pressure”. “I am happy that the members were able to decide without any pressure who they want to lead,” he said at a press conference at the Congress of Deputies. For Tellado, “everything that involves promoting judicial independence is good for Spain” and is therefore a cause for celebration for his party.
From the PSOE, they also celebrated that the magistrate became the first president, “woman and progressiveof the CGPJ and the Supreme Court. In a statement collected by Ep, the socialists welcomed the fact that “after weeks of blockage by conservative members” of the CGPG, an agreement had been reached.
PSOE sources assured that with the appointment of Perelló “the conditions that the progressives have defended from the beginning are met”: that the presidency of the TS and the CGPJ be occupied by a woman, a judge of the Supreme Court, with “an impeccable curriculum vitae” and that it would represent “a renewal after 28 consecutive years of conservative presidents” in the governing body of judges.
