María Pilar Llop Cuenca (born 3 August 1973) is a Spanish judge and politician who has been serving as minister of Justice of Spain and ''ex officio'' First Notary of the Kingdom since 2021. Previously, she served as the 61st

president of the Senate of Spain The president of the Senate is the presiding officer of the Spanish Senate, the upper house of Spain's Cortes Generales. It is the fourth authority of the country after the Monarch (Head of State), the Prime Minister (Head of Government) and ...

. She has been Spanish Senator designated by the

Assembly of Madrid The Assembly of Madrid or Madrid Assembly ( es, Asamblea de Madrid) is the unicameral autonomous legislature of the Autonomous Community of Madrid since the approval of the Madrid Charter of Autonomy in 1983. It is elected every four years durin ...

, an assembly of which she has been part since June 2019. Previously, she was member of the

from 2015 to 2018 and Government Delegate for Gender Violence of the Government of Spain from 2018 to 2019.

Early life and education

Born on 3 August 1973 in Madrid to a humble family; her father was taxi-driver and her mother a hairdresser, she graduated in law at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

. She also mastered judicial translation in the

University of Alicante The University of Alicante ( ca-valencia, Universitat d'Alacant, italic=no, ; es, Universidad de Alicante, italic=no, ; also known by the acronym ''UA'') was established in 1979 on the basis of the Center for University Studies (CEU), which was fo ...

Career

Llop entered the judicial career in 1999 and became a magistrate in 2004. Llop ran in the

Spanish Socialist Worker's Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

(PSOE) list for the 2015 Madrilenian regional election led by

Ángel Gabilondo Ángel Gabilondo Pujol (born 1 March 1949) is a Spanish university professor, currently serving as the 6th Ombudsman of Spain. Between 2009 and 2011, he was Minister of Education in José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's Cabinet. In June 2011, h ...

and became a member of the 10th term of the regional legislature. She formalised the renouncement to her seat in the

on 13 July 2018, as she had been appointed by the

Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

presided by

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...

as the new Government Delegate for Gender Violence. She was sworn into office on 24 July 2018. During her time in office, Llop led efforts on reforming Spain’s

insolvency In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet i ...

law to simplify bankruptcy proceedings and meet a major condition agreed with the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

to obtain European Union recovery funds.Belén Carreño (21 December 2021)
Spain streamlines bankruptcy process to get EU recovery funds
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Llop Cuenca, Maria Pilar 1973 births 21st-century Spanish women politicians Complutense University of Madrid alumni Living people Members of the 10th Assembly of Madrid Members of the 11th Assembly of Madrid Members of the 13th Senate of Spain Members of the 14th Senate of Spain Presidents of the Senate of Spain 21st-century Spanish judges Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians University of Alicante alumni Spanish women judges Female justice ministers Justice ministers of Spain 21st-century women judges