The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) plans to hold an extraordinary plenary session this Wednesday in which it is preparing to unanimously approve its progressive and conservative blocs a proposal from its president, Isabel Perelló, where it proposes immediately calling for 375 judge positions, as well as commissioning an internal report to quantify how many must be filled via the ‘fourth shift’ in view of another call.
The proposal, to which EL PAÍS has had access, explains that “it is necessary to increase the number of judges and magistrates to adjust it to the judicial staff” because, according to the CGPJ’s own Strategic Plan for the next decade, at the end of 2025 there were 5,903 judicial staff positions to be filled by 5,643 judges and magistrates. That is, he noted the existence of 260 “structural vacancies” in the judicial career.
The Council assures that the judges who have entered the judicial career as of January 1, 2026 or will do so soon “barely compensate for the retirements and reductions in staff expected for the coming years”, which are 133 in 2026, 135 in 2027, 157 in 2028 and 153 in 2029.
To all this, the governing body of the judges adds more than judicial ones, which, according to ministerial sources, represents a record figure.
For the Council, “the urgent need to incorporate new judges requires increasing the number of the last calls”, which has been 120. And, although it understands that “the high number of existing and foreseeable vacancies until the next call does not allow them to be filled in one go, but with a constant and sustained effort”, it takes a first step by proposing that the Selection Commission, which is formally responsible for the call, offer 375 judge positions for the next open competition for access to the judicial career, “without prejudice to those that correspond to the fiscal career.”
The CGPJ had already warned of the need to add 367 new judges a year until 2035 just to fill vacancies. But the novelty of this proposal lies in the fact that, in a second point, it also proposes entrusting its Judicial Personnel Service with a report on the vacancies that can legally be offered in an upcoming call by , the one reserved for jurists of recognized prestige with more than ten years of professional experience, who must pass a practical test, defend merits and undergo a brief training process. The law provides for them a quarter of the magistrate vacancies.
According to Justice’s report to the CGPJ, within the framework of the announced call for 500 places, the Ministry headed by Félix Bolaños calculates that there is a historical “deficit” of 781 places in the fourth shift. However, CGPJ sources lower the figure to one hundred. The sources consulted by this newspaper indicate that it is most likely that a little more than one hundred will be announced in the next call.
For the progressive sector of the CGPJ, this proposal represents a victory, since it represents a commitment to call for new positions for the fourth shift in the not too distant future, viewed with suspicion by a good part of the judicial career, considering that it offers an alternative to the demanding process of the free shift, that is, the traditional opposition. The conservative bloc, for its part, claims that “calling for many places is a necessity”, although some voices criticize the haste, which they attribute to the Government’s announcement of the 500 new places. In any case, the two souls of the Council agree that it will be beneficial for the administration of Justice, currently saturated, as has been highlighted in recent times by both the National Court. Therefore, it is expected that this proposal from Perelló will be approved unanimously.
Likewise, the agreement will serve to reduce the tension between Justice and the CGPJ, which was evident after the speech that Perelló gave to welcome the new judges. The magistrate denounced a “deficit” of judges that she said translates into work overload for those who already practice, considering the 500 new positions announced to be insufficient. He also vindicated the current system of access to the judicial career, based on criteria of “merit” and “capacity”, in the face of the reform announced by the Government; and expressed his “concern” about the problems generated by the implementation of the lower courts, demanding that the CGPJ be given a voice when relevant changes in the administration of justice are anticipated. Bolaños, for his part, framed Perelló’s words in a “political speech.”
