When the legislature seems to be drawing to a close. It’s time to take stock. It has been more than eight years of unprecedented conflict between the Judiciary and the Government of Pedro Sánchez, even after the renewal of its governing body in June 2024, after more than five years of blockage by the PP. However, the left-leaning government has managed to fulfill a longstanding demand of the judiciary. The creation of five hundred new judicial posts this year will drastically reduce the deficit of judges in Spain compared with other countries in our region and bring Spain’s figures to the European average.
The Ministry of Presidency and Justice acts in coordination with the CGPJ, which, at the last Plenary session held last Wednesday, asked that the deployment of new postings be carried out in stages to allow adequate coverage. On January 1, the posts for the principal collegiate bodies (Supreme Court, National Court and provincial and Superior Courts) will be allocated. Six months later, those for the trial courts in the major capitals. The process will be completed, according to the plan designed by the Council, on November 1, 2027, with all the posts created, filled and in operation.
“The unprecedented expansion of the judicial staff will be 8.5%”
Aunque este crecimiento de planta sin precedentes no se haya aprobado todavía en el Consejo de Ministros, Gobierno y CGPJ ya han lanzado la mayor convocatoria de la historia para la selección de nuevos jueces y magistrados que cubrirán las vacantes de menor rango que se generen cuando se completen los concursos de traslado que se producirán a medida que se desplieguen los nuevos destinos. 375 de los futuros nuevos 500 jueces entrarán a la judicatura a través de la tradicional oposición, que se celebrará en octubre. El resto se cubrirá por concurso-oposición para juristas de reconocida competencia con más de diez años de experiencia (el tradicional cuarto turno) y accederán a la carrera ya con la categoría de magistrado. La ampliación sin precedentes de la plantilla será del 8,5%.
In addition to the five hundred new judges and magistrates, through the October examinations there will also be access to 200 new prosecutors —the subjects of the test are the same as for the judges—. The increase in personnel at the Public Prosecutor’s Office will also set a record, representing, in one go, a 7.1% growth. The Government plans for 2027 a similar process with the creation of 500 more posts (a thousand in two years) and another cooptation process via examinations and the fourth tranche if the legislature lasts until then.
The EU Justice Indicators framework for 2026, recently published by the European Commission, places Spain again at the bottom in the number of judges per 100,000 inhabitants. Among the Twenty-Seven, our country ranks 24th, just ahead of Malta, Denmark and Ireland. Yet Spain sits in the same range as several countries it is usually compared with, such as France, Italy, Belgium or the Netherlands, though far from Germany or Austria, which more than double our figure of judges relative to total population.
If we consider public administration investment as a share of GDP, we rise to ninth place, and the same holds for digitalization indicators, where Spain is also at the forefront. The Government and the CGPJ expect that the great workforce expansion in progress will improve metrics related to the time it takes to resolve matters and, in general, the chronic backlog of cases, in which Spanish figures have been poor year after year.
This historic measure has also taken place in an atmosphere of total conflict between the major judicial associations (conservative, not only judges but also prosecutors) and the Executive. The conservative groups organized in July 2025 two days of strikes (illegal?) against the reforms implemented by the Government, including the move to democratize entry into the profession by creating a public center for applicants or introducing a practical test and broadening scholarships for applicants with fewer resources. The approval of the amnesty law for normalizing the situation in Catalonia following the traumatic independence process also intensified the clash with the judiciary.
The president of the CGPJ, Isabel Perelló, dismissed the Government’s increase in judges immediately after Justice announced it, publicly asserting that it “does not address nor resolve the underlying problem.” Her reaction was surprising, given that the distribution of new posts matched the concrete needs previously indicated in a report by the very governing body of the judges. A month later, the 20 members, conservatives and progressives, disowned Perelló and highly valued the measure in the Council’s mandatory report. The document deemed the new posts “essential.”
The Ministry and the Council also clashed over the system to be followed to fill the new vacancies. Félix Bolaños was initially in favor of having the occupants selected through the so-called fourth turn for lawyers with at least ten years of experience, while the CGPJ insisted on resorting to the opposition. In the end, both bodies agreed that 325 of the vacancies would go to applicants through the opposition and the remaining 125 to lawyers.
“The government’s judicial reform has put the judges on a war footing, who, despite years of demanding it, now claim it has created chaos”
From the Government they insist that the measure has only been possible thanks to the January 2025 entry into force of the only substantive judicial reform that managed to be pushed through, the Law on the Efficiency of the Public Justice Service. That rule abolished the traditional single-judge courts to group them into instance courts whose members are aided by a common judicial office. The reform has put the judges on a war footing, who, after years of demanding it, now say it has created chaos.
In the Presidency and Justice departments they acknowledge that, as with all landmark changes, a transition period is needed, but they insist that, one year after the norm’s approval, there have been no suspensions or delays and, according to their data, the backlog of matters, though reduced, is beginning to ease. In the face of criticisms from conservative associations, who claim that the new law and the 500 new posts have not been accompanied by the necessary investment for its implementation, the department of Félix Bolaños emphasizes that, in this current legislature alone, public spending on justice has risen to 1.124 billion euros. And the European Commission data back up that claim.
But more than anything, they explain that without that reform the long-awaited increase in judges could not have taken place. With the old single-judge courts, creating a new post required setting up the entire court with its material and personnel. Now it is enough to create one more post in the trial court that needs it. Before the efficiency law, creating a new post cost around 500,000 euros. Now, thanks to transforming the courts into collegiate bodies, they are common administrative services for all their members; the cost of each new post has been reduced to 100,000 euros, according to Ministry sources.
The Ministry and the Council also clashed over the system to fill the new vacancies. Félix Bolaños was initially in favor of having the occupants selected through the so-called fourth turn for lawyers with at least ten years of experience, while the CGPJ demanded resorting to the opposition. In the end, both bodies agreed that 325 of the vacancies would go to opponents and the remaining 125 to jurists.
“The law on efficiency and the historic expansion of staff that this norm has made viable will stand as part of Pedro Sánchez’s legacy to a judiciary that, in the eight years it has held power, has given it not a moment’s respite”
The extraordinary assumption of new members to the judiciary will mainly affect the Judicial Training School, which, dependent on the Council, will have to double its efforts to train these individuals. The judiciary’s governing body has decided to overlap the two stages of practical training that students undergo—supervised internships and substituting for colleagues—to accelerate their full integration into public service. The CGPJ has also asked the Government to reform the law to remove the substitution phase, but the ministry, for now, rejects it.
The gradual erosion of the Executive’s backing in Parliament suggests that the other judicial reforms started by the Government are unlikely to see the light of day. Virtually certainly, the new Criminal Procedure Law that would entrust the instruction of crimes to prosecutors will not see the light. Nor the reform of the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to endow it with sufficient independence to undertake that task. Nor the new system of access to the judiciary and to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, made more open to economically disadvantaged sectors. The Law on Efficiency and the historic expansion of staff that this law has made viable will remain as what the Pedro Sánchez government will leave to a judiciary that, in the eight years it has held power, has not given it a moment’s respite.
