Mariano Rajoy

Date of Birth: 27.03.1955

Mariano Rajoy Brey - Spanish politician, leader of the People's Party since 2004. He held ministerial posts in the government of José María Aznar, served as Vice President of the Government from February 28, 2000, to September 3, 2003, and was Minister of the Interior from February 2001 to 2002. After the party's defeat in the elections on April 17, 2004, he led the opposition in the Cortes. He was Prime Minister of Spain from December 21, 2011, to June 1, 2018.

Place of Birth. Education. Mariano Rajoy was born on March 27, 1955, in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. He is the grandson of one of the authors of the Galician Statute of Autonomy of 1932, who was excluded from teaching at the university during the dictatorship until the early fifties, and the son of the chairman of the provincial court of Pontevedra, where he grew up.

Trained lawyer. In his final year at the Faculty of Law at the University of Santiago de Compostela, he prepared for the position of registrar of property, which he assumed after graduation at the age of 24, becoming the youngest registrar in Padron (Galicia), Villafranca del Bierzo (León), and Santa Pola (Alicante).

Political Career. With the support of José Luis Barreiro, Rajoy joined the People's Party (Alianza Popular, since 1989 People's Party) in 1981 and was elected as a regional parliament member in the first elections of the Autonomous Community of Galicia the same year.

In 1982, Rajoy was appointed Director General of the Committee for the Relations of the Government of Galicia and Secretary of the Transfer Committee between the State and the Autonomous Community of Galicia. In the municipal elections in May 1983, Rajoy was elected as a member of the Legislative Council of Pontevedra. In 1986, he became the chairman of the Legislative Council of the Province of Pontevedra, holding this position until 1991.

In the 1986 parliamentary elections, Rajoy obtained a parliamentary mandate in Congress by leading the electoral list of Pontevedra. However, he had to resign in November due to the crisis and resignation of José Luis Barreiro and other members of the Junta Galicia due to pressure to assume the position of Vice President of the Government of Galicia. At an extraordinary party congress in May 1988, Rajoy was appointed Secretary General of the Galician branch of the People's Party.

In January 1989, the People's Party was transformed into a unitary party and renamed the People's Party (PP), led by Manuel Fraga Iribarne. Rajoy was appointed a member of the National Executive Committee of the People's Party and was designated as a representative of Pontevedra.

In the 1993 elections, the People's Party became the main opposition party, and Rajoy regained his parliamentary mandate as a representative of Pontevedra.

On March 3, 1996, the People's Party won the elections. Rajoy was appointed Minister of Public Administration.

In January 1999, Rajoy was appointed Minister of Education and Culture.

In the 2000 parliamentary elections, the People's Party won an absolute majority in Parliament. Rajoy, as in the previous elections, was appointed as the head of the campaign and, therefore, became the first Vice President and Minister for Affairs in the Aznar government.

Since February 2001 - Minister of the Interior.

In January 2002, Rajoy was re-elected as Deputy Secretary General of the party at the party congress. In July of that year, he resigned as Interior Minister and took over the position of Government Spokesperson and Minister for the Prime Minister's Affairs.

On September 3, 2003, he resigned from all positions as José María Aznar appointed him Secretary General of the PP and candidate for the presidency. At the XIV Congress of the People's Party, he was elected the new leader.

April 16, 2004 - December 21, 2011 Opposition Leader. Since October 2, 2004, he has been the chairman of the People's Party.

After the People's Party's victory in the 2011 elections, where it won 186 out of 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies, Rajoy became Prime Minister of Spain.

The parliamentary elections of December 20, 2015 brought Spain into a government crisis. The People's Party, which finished in first place, received 28.7% of the votes and 123 seats in the Congress of Deputies, while the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) received 22% (90 seats).

It was not possible to form a government that would have a majority in the Congress of Deputies. On June 26, 2016, early parliamentary elections were held in Spain, where the People's Party, despite slight gains with 137 mandates, remained the largest party, which, however, did not allow it to form a government alone. From December 2015 to October 2016, Spain was governed by a caretaker government led by Prime Minister Rajoy.

On October 29, 2016, the Congress of Deputies approved Rajoy's candidacy as head of government with a simple majority in a runoff vote. The minority government formed by Rajoy has the least parliamentary support in modern history of Spain.

He is the first Prime Minister in the history of Spain to hold office during the reign of two monarchs - during the reign of Juan Carlos I from 2011 to 2014 and Felipe VI since 2014.

On June 1, 2018, Mariano Rajoy resigned from his position after a corruption scandal, having lost the confidence of the parliamentary majority: 180 deputies voted for the vote of no confidence, 169 against, with one abstention.

Family. In 1996, Rajoy married Elvira Fernandes Balboa.

24.03.2022