Carlos Lesmes

Carlos Lesmes Serrano (born 10 June 1958) is a Spanish magistrate and prosecutor who served as president of the Supreme Court and president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) from 2013 to 2022. Since December 2018, he served in acting capacity in both posts, as his mandate expired at the time and the renovation of the CGPJ was blocked from then on. He is seen as a Conservative jurist with a religious background. Judicial career Lesmes was born in Madrid, Spain in 1958. After graduating in Law, Lesmes entered by open tendering in the judicial and prosecution careers in 1984, and he chose to start his career as a prosecutor until 1993 when he entered the judicial career. As a prosecutor, he was assigned to the Provincial Courts of Alicante (1984-1985) and Madrid (1985-1992) and to the Constitutional Court (1992-1993). In 1993 he returned to the Judicial Career, after overcoming the open tendering to specialist magistrate of the jurisdictional contentious-administrative order. Between 1993 and 1996 he was a magistrate in the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community. Between 1996 and 2004, he temporarily suspended its functions as judge within the judicial career switching to politics during the governments of José María Aznar, serving as Director-General for Conscientious Objection (1996–2000) and Director-General for Relations with the Administration of Justice (2000–2004), both roles within the Ministry of Justice.