Spain appoints Perello as first woman head of Supreme Court

MADRID: Spain on Tuesday appointed Isabel Perello as the country´s top judge, making her the first woman to run the Supreme Court and ending a years-long deadlock.

Judge Perello, 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.

Perello, 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.

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