Supreme Court Justice Isabel Perelló will be the next president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). More than a month after taking office, the twenty new members have finally reached an agreement and agreed that the High Court judge will occupy the first chair of the Spanish justice system for the next five years. The election took place after several failed attempts and will allow the institution to start functioning normally again after years of discredit. She is the first woman in history to preside over the judiciary.
Perelló is one of the longest-serving judges in the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court, which she joined in 2009 after a decade of work at the National Court and as a lawyer at the Constitutional Court. Considered a progressive profile, during the mortgage tax crisis of 2018, she chose to charge this tax to the bank and not to the client. “We must avoid that in a few days the Supreme Court affirms one thing and its opposite, reversing itself, because it would not transmit to society the image that it renders justice but rather sows confusion,” said her dissenting opinion.
Two years ago, she was one of nine Supreme Court judges who ran as candidates for the Constitutional Court to unblock the partial renewal of the Guarantee Court, at a time when the conservative sector blocked the appointment of new judges for months. She has been affiliated with Judges for Democracy for decades.
The talks, which remained open throughout August, have intensified in recent days. Especially since this Monday, when a long day of negotiations took place in which the majority accepted the proposal of the conservative sector to look for new candidates after it was impossible to find a consensual name among the seven Supreme Court justices proposed in July.
The difficulty in reaching an agreement revealed that, for the first time, the election of the presidency was not the subject of an agreement between the two major parties. Until this eighth term, it was usual for the nomination of the presidency – which is formally made by the members – to be decided in advance by the politicians. The complex negotiations that led to the final agreement also show the total importance that both blocs give to the person in charge of leading an institution that manages a budget close to 80 million euros and is responsible for electing senior officials of the judicial career and sanctioning the offences of judges.
