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Spain appoints first female head of its Supreme Court

Spain Tuesday appointed Isabel Perelló as the country's top judge, making her the first woman to run the Supreme Court and ending a years-long deadlock.

Published: 3 September 2024 16:22 CEST

Spain appoints first female head of its Supreme Court

Isabel Perelló, new president of the General Council of the Judiciary and the Supreme Court. Photo: CGPJ

Judge Perelló, 66, was elected president of the Supreme Court and the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), a legal watchdog responsible for appointing judges and ensuring the Judiciary’s independence, the council said in a statement.

Perelló, described by Spanish media as a progressive, received the backing of 16 of the council’s 20 members, it added.

She is the first woman to head Spain’s Supreme Court since it was founded in 1812, and also the first to lead the CGPT, the statement said.

The council’s mandate expired in December 2018 and since then it has been operating on an interim basis because Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s ruling Socialists and the main opposition Popular Party (PP) could not agree on its makeup.

The deadlock has increasingly caused problems for the functioning of the Spanish court system, with over 100 vacancies for judges, prompting several rebukes from Brussels as well as a failed attempt to mediate in the dispute.

READ MORE: Why the judicial blockade is Spain’s main talking point right now

Perelló’s nomination was made possible after the Socialists and the PP recently agreed on the renewal of the 20 members of the CGPT.

In a message posted on X, Sánchez offered his “sincere congratulations” to Perelló on becoming the first woman to preside over the Supreme court and the CGPJ “in the history of our country”.

“Equality is a backbone of democracy. Today Spain recovers institutional normality,” he added.

A judge since 1985 who comes from the northeastern region of Catalonia, Perelló will be sworn in on Wednesday.

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Spain's plan to limit temporary accommodation rejected

If passed, the new law would have meant that anyone who wanted to temporarily rent a property would have to explain why and provide a valid reason.

For example, students or researchers would have to show the research contract or course booking to show it would only last a few months.

It would have also meant that if more than six months passed or more than two consecutive contracts issued, it will have automatically become a long-term habitual residence instead.

On Tuesday September 17th, the proposal was ultimately rejected in the Spanish Congress, voted against by Spain’s three main right-wing parties – Catalan nationalists Junts, Spain’s main opposition party the PP and far-right Vox.

The aim in part was to try and rectify the controversial Housing Law, which came into effect in 2023.

In most people’s eyes, the legislation has failed as landlords have found several loopholes to get around the restrictions, prices have continued to increase and the stock of rental properties is even more diminished.

READ ALSO: Has Spain’s Housing Law completely failed to control rents?

As a result of the fear of heightened regulation for landlords, many have left the traditional market and turned to tourist rentals or temporary accommodation instead, which are far more lucrative.

This has had the opposite effect, increasing rental prices instead of stabilising or decreasing them.

READ MORE: Why landlords in Spain leave their flats empty rather than rent long-term

Seasonal contracts and room rentals allow landlords to raise prices every six or nine months and they not subject to the price limitations of the housing law.

The idea of this new law was to try and set the maximum duration of a temporary rental contracts at six months in order to avoid this, but it could have potentially also caused problems for many who need this type accommodation such as students, digital nomads, those living here on a short term basis etc.

During the debate, Sumar’s spokesperson, Íñigo Errejón, defended the law saying that it is a “solvent”, “fair” and “precise” proposal, which will help “correct an abuse” and “close the gap through which “Landlords can use to avoid the LAU (Urban Leasing Law) and rent regulation”.

Far-left party Podemos blamed the ruling PSOE for having left this “hole” in the housing law, but also agreed that the restrictions on temporary accommodation were needed to try and rectify this.

READ ALSO: Has Spain’s Housing Law completely failed to control rents?

Junts (Catalonia’s main pro-independence party) and the PNV, the Basque nationalist party, were firmly against it. They agreed that the problem must be solved and that “accessible decent housing was needed”, but raised the situation of students, interns, residents or workers who need housing for flexible periods.

Junts party member Marta Madrenas warned of the harmful effects that this limitation on temporary rentals can have for university cities such as Girona.

Vox and the PP meanwhile argued that they don’t want to help cover up the mistakes made by the left with regards to the Housing Law.

Vox deputy Ignacio Hoces stated that the increase in seasonal rentals has occurred due to the “failure” of the Housing Law, since this has caused rental prices to “skyrocketed” by 13 percent and the supply to be reduced by 15 percent.

Temporary accommodation, referred to as alquiler temporal or alquiler de temporada in Spanish, is considered to be anything that’s longer than a month but shorter than a year, middle ground between short-term and long-term rentals. It is also referred to as monthly accommodation or seasonal accommodation.

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