Spanish Ombudsman

Spanish Ombudsman
Defensor del Pueblo
Coat of arms of Spain
Incumbent Ángel Gabilondo since 18 November 2021
Style	The Most Excellent (formal) Mr. Ombudsman (informal)
Nominator	Cortes Generales
Appointer	Speaker of the Congress Speaker of the Senate
Term length	5 years
Constituting instrument	Spanish Constitution
Formation	1981
First holder	Joaquín Ruiz-Giménez Cortés
Deputy	First Deputy Ombudsman
Salary	€ 119,755.23 per year[1]
Website	https://www.defensordelpueblo.es/en/

The Spanish Ombudsman or Defender of the People (Spanish: Defensor del Pueblo) is the ombudsman of the Cortes Generales responsible for defending the fundamental rights and public liberties of citizens by supervising the activity of public administrations.

The ombudsman is created by the Constitution and regulated by an Organic Law of 1981. The ombudsman and the two deputy ombudsmans are nominated by both the Congress of Deputies and Senate through a joint committee that chooses the candidates and proposes them to the Chambers. The candidates must be approved by three-fifths of both Chambers. If these qualified majorities are not reached, a new joint committee must to be formed to choose another candidate or to maintain the previous one but the second must get in a second voting three fifths of the Congress and an absolute majority of the Senate. To be chosen ombudsman it is necessary to be a Spaniard, adult and having the full enjoyment of one's civil and political rights.

The Ombudsman ceases by resignation, expiration of the term of appointment, by death or disability, by acting with gross negligence in compliance with the obligations and duties of the office or by having been convicted, by final judgment, of willful misconduct. In the case that the office is vacant, it is the First Deputy Ombudsman who assumes the office as Acting Ombudsman.^[2]