The new president of the judiciary expressed on Thursday her “commitment” to defending judicial independence, an independence that she described as “armor-proof” without “any power of the State being able to give us instructions.”
This was underscored in his first opening speech of the judicial year, in which he stressed that judges must “apply the law against anyone and in all circumstances”, in a veiled reference to recent political criticism of “lawfare”.
For the first time in history, a woman, Judge Isabel Perelló, occupied the centre of the podium in the imposing plenary hall of the Supreme Court at the opening of the judicial year, the most solemn event in the judicial world, presided over by the King.
Perelló, elected last Thursday as president of the Supreme Court and the General Council of the Judiciary, broke the highest “glass ceiling” that remains in the judicial career, 47 years after the entry of the first woman, in 1977, a year before the approval of the Constitution that enshrines equality.
To the right of Felipe VI, Perelló delivered his first speech at the beginning of the judicial course, for the preparation of which he barely had time, given his appointment ‘in extremis’ by the members of the CGPJ only 48 hours ago.
In her speech, Perelló described her election “as a recognition of all women who work in the Administration of Justice, whatever the functions they perform.”
“Today must be a day of recognition and gratitude to all the women of our country who, throughout history, have fought to defend the right to equality and to end the undeserved invisibility to which they have been subjected. Women in the different professional and social fields of life,” he said.
