Lorena Sánchez is 27 years old and, for two years, she has been preparing for competitive examinations to be a judge. She had a clear goal since she was studying Law, so she combined her studies with work and, upon finishing her degree, she started working in a company. “I had to save so I could dedicate myself to preparing for the exams,” she says. She worked for three years before focusing on his true vocation and, with the savings and the help of her parents, she calculated that he could dedicate himself to the exams for another three, a very fair period to pass. She drew on savings one year and when she was heading into the second, she found out that the Ministry of Justice had launched a call for scholarships to compete in the bodies of the Administration of Justice. She applied and was granted. “Thanks to the scholarship I can focus on the oppositions with peace of mind. Without it, I would most likely have to rethink it,” she says.
The young woman, who also studied the career with a scholarship, is one of the beneficiaries of the aid that the Government launched in 2022 for the preparation of oppositions to the judicial and fiscal careers, to the body of Lawyers of the Administration of Justice and to the of State Attorneys. The first call was published in June 2022, with an endowment of 1.6 million euros. That of 2024 will have five times more, eight million. “We are giving opportunities to people who would not be able to because of their income. “We are putting them on equal terms,” the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños, remarked this Wednesday during an event in which the Government presented the new scholarship program, which from now on will be called Seré Scholarships, in reference to the doors they open to be a judge, prosecutor, lawyer or State lawyer.
1,000 people will be able to benefit from this year’s scholarships, 26% more than in 2023 (792) and 308% more than in the first call (245). The amount will also increase, which will be 8,000 euros, 21% more than in the previous two years (6,600 euros). “How much talent has been left by the wayside? “How many people have not been able to study an opposition because they did not have financial means and their family could not help them?” Bolaños warned. “We go to those people and tell them that what we want is for merit and effort to prevail. That’s why the name of the scholarship: Seré. You will be a judge, prosecutor, lawyer for the Administration of Justice or State lawyer if you have the talent to achieve it. We take care of the economic capacity,” added the minister.
The scholarships have a duration of 12 months and are paid in full at the beginning of the period, a formula with which, according to Justice sources, the aim is to overcome the socioeconomic barriers that may make it difficult for a young person to make the decision to study the competitive exams, a process which entails, among other expenses, paying a coach (around 250 euros per month), the purchase of books for each of the subjects (between 100 and 150 euros each), syllabus updates and, in the case of Applicants from outside Madrid, travel to the capital for the oral exams, which are held at the Supreme Court. There is the possibility of renewing it three times and for the award the family income (from lowest to highest) and passing the opposition exercises in the previous call take precedence.
“I am the living example that without the scholarship I would not be here,” said prosecutor Yurema Rodríguez, one of the 40 beneficiaries of these scholarships who have managed to overcome the opposition, at the program’s presentation event. She prepared for six years with the only support of her family. “I couldn’t go on anymore,” she remembers. “But they put out the call for scholarships, they granted it to me and I tried one more year.” And finally she managed to pass. “The scholarships are very necessary and allow democratizing access to the judiciary. We have to start breaking that myth that not only people from well-off families or rich families can access it,” says Yurema Rodríguez.
The circumstances that this young woman went through are common among opponents of the Administration of Justice. “Sometimes we met people who, after failing, told us that they were going to quit because they couldn’t afford to continue preparing. It was a very painful situation,” explained the Secretary of State for Justice, Manuel Olmedo, a magistrate who was a member of the opposition court. Along the same lines, Judge Sonia Nuez, opposition preparer, has warned of the importance of “subverting the social, economic and cultural divide.” “It also helps with transparency in preparation and achieving more plural careers, which is enriching,” she noted.
What affects most is what happens closest. So you don’t miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#Government #increases #budget #scholarships #compete #judges #prosecutors