Esperanza Aguirre | |
|---|---|
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| 3rdPresident of the Community of Madrid | |
| In office 8 November 2003 – 26 September 2012 | |
| Monarch | Juan Carlos I |
| Preceded by | Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón |
| Succeeded by | Ignacio González |
| 56th President of the Senate | |
| In office 9 February 1999 – 16 October 2002 | |
| Preceded by | Juan Ignacio Barrero |
| Succeeded by | Juan José Lucas |
| Minister of Education, Culture and Sport | |
| In office 5 May 1996 – 19 January 1999 | |
| Prime Minister | José María Aznar |
| Preceded by | Jerónimo Saavedra(Education) Carmen Alborch(Culture) |
| Succeeded by | Mariano Rajoy |
| Member of theSenate | |
| In office 3 March 1996 – 21 November 2002 | |
| Constituency | Madrid |
| Member of theAssembly of Madrid | |
| In office 25 May 2003 – 19 September 2012 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Esperanza Fuencisla Aguirrey Gil de Biedma[1] (1952-01-03)3 January 1952 (age 74) |
| Party | Liberal Union(1983–1984) Liberal Party(1984–1986) People's Alliance(1987–1989) People's Party(1989–present) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, includingFernando |
| Alma mater | Complutense University |
| Occupation | Politician,civil servant |
| Signature |  |
Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma (Spanish pronunciation:[espeˈɾanθaaˈɣire]; born 3 January 1952)[2] is a Spanish politician. As member of thePeople's Party (PP), she served asPresident of the Senate between 1999 and 2002 (becoming the first female politician to have held the post), asPresident of the Community of Madrid between 2003 and 2012 and asMinister of Education and Culture (1996–1999). She also chaired thePeople's Party of the Community of Madrid between 2004 and 2016.
Aguirre was born inMadrid on 3 January 1952[3] being the eldest daughter of José Luis Aguirre Borrell, a noted lawyer, and Piedad Gil de Biedma Vega de Seoane, the sister of the poetJaime Gil de Biedma.[4][5] She is also second cousin of the photographerOuka Leele.[6] She studied in theLa Asunción School and in the British Council School of Madrid and earned a degree inLaw at theComplutense University of Madrid in 1974.[7] Aside fromSpanish, she is reportedly fluent inEnglish andFrench, has basic notions ofItalian and "understands"Catalan.[8]
In 1974, Aguirre marriedFernando Ramírez de Haro,[9] 15th Count of Murillo, 16thCount of Bornos (Grandee of Spain), whom with she has had two sons:Fernando (born 1976) and Álvaro (born 1980).[9][5]
In 1976 Aguirre became a civil servant, as member of the Corps of Information of Tourism's Technicians.[10] She was head of the Department of Publicity and Tourism, where she remained until 1979. Subsequently, she had many different jobs in theMinistry of Culture, serving several Ministers during theDemocratic Centre Union governments; especially designated by the Prime Minister himself. In 1979, she was chief of staff of the General Director of Literature and Cinematography. She was appointed Deputy General Director of Studies of the Technical General Secretariat of the Ministry of Culture in 1980. In 1981, she was appointed Deputy General Director in the Advisory Staff of the Secretary of State of Culture. Her last position with the Administration was as Deputy General Director of Cultural Associations.
Since her early years Aguirre had been a member of the Club Liberal of Madrid, which was presided over byPedro Schwartz.[11] Schwartz reportedly played an important role in the beginnings of Aguirre's political career: in 1983, he was the one to convince her, by then acivil servant; to stand as candidate in theMadrid local elections running in the list of the political alliance between Schwartz'sLiberal Union, thePeople's Alliance and thePeople's Democratic Party. She was elected as became a municipal councillor.[12] While in opposition, she was a member of the Standing Committee of theMadrid City Council, a CP spokeswoman on the areas of Culture, Education, Youth and Sports Affairs, and theMoncloa-Aravaca district. When the Liberal Union merged with the Liberal Party in December 1984, she held different positions in the National Executive and the Political Council of José Antonio Segurado'sLiberal Party.
In 1987 she left the Liberal Party and joinedPopular Alliance, which later, in 1989, was refounded as thePeople's Party (PP). She was subsequently re-elected to the city council and continued in opposition until 1989, when a successfulvote of no confidence ousted thePSOE mayor Juan Barranco, which allowed the PP andDemocratic and Social Centre (CDS) to govern Madrid for the first time since the restoration of competitive municipal elections in 1979, under the Mayorship ofAgustín Rodríguez Sahagún (CDS). In the new local executive, she was designated head of the Department of the Environment.
The PP won a council majority in the1991 election andJosé María Álvarez del Manzano was subsequently invested as new mayor, with Aguirre remaining in the municipal government board. Two years later, in 1993, in the reshuffle that followed the fall from grace of firebrand councillorÁngel Matanzo, she assumed additional competences becoming Councillor of Environment, Education, Culture and Sports.[13] In June 1995, after theMay election, she became the municipal spokeswoman of the PP and first deputy mayor.[13] Soon after, she was also appointed by the City Council to theCaja Madrid Board of Governors.
In the general election of 1996 she was the candidate for the Senate for Madrid of the People's Party, after her designation as a member of the National Executive Committee of the Party; and she became a senator. The then newPresident,José María Aznar, appointed her to be Minister of Education, Culture and Sports. She was succeeded in those posts in 1999 byMariano Rajoy.
Aguirre, a Senator since 1996, was elected President of the Senate in February 1999, the first woman to do so. In March 2000, she was re-elected Senator for Madrid, becoming the top-voted candidate in Spain with 1.55 million votes and 50.7% of the popular vote, a percentage record still unbroken.[14] She resigned in 2002 to run for thePresidency of theAutonomous Community of Madrid in theregional Assembly elections of 2003. She was substituted as President of the Senate byJuan José Lucas.
When the regional elections took place in May 2003, the People's Party won a plurality of seats. The People's Party won 55 seats in theMadrid Assembly, being the only party of the right in the Assembly. On the left, PSOE won 47 seats andUnited Left won 9 seats, thus making it possible for a coalition of PSOE and IU to rule. However, the election of a leftist coalition was not possible due to two dissenting deputies of the PSOE, Eduardo Tamayo and María Teresa Sáez, who refused to obey the party whip in the first two votes, the election of the speaker and the election of the president.[citation needed]
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In October 2003, following the scandal of the dissenting deputies, the regional elections were rerun. The People's Party won a qualified majority of seats, which enabled Aguirre's investiture asPresident of the Community of Madrid. Aguirre's most important stated achievements in those years[when?] were the reduction of surgery waiting times, the building of eight new hospitals and 87 new state schools (most of them bilingual), an increase in the investment for several scholarships of education, and the expansion of the Underground to suburban areas such asPozuelo de Alarcón.[citation needed] The period included the peak of theSpanish construction bubble, and many of her associates would later end up indicted for corruption.
On 1 December 2005, the helicopter Aguirre was travelling on alongsideMariano Rajoy crashed shortly after taking off from the bullring ofMóstoles. Aguirre managed to pull herself out of the helicopter without suffering any injuries.[15]
On 27 November 2008, she survived without injury the2008 Mumbai attacks when shooting began in theOberoi Trident while she was checking in.[16]
Aguirre announced her retirement as president on 17 September 2012, citing health issues, and that she would return to her career as a civil servant at the Ministry of Tourism.[17][18]
Aguirre remained as President of thePeople's Party of the Community of Madrid. On 13 January 2013 the Seeliger and Conde Foundation, an executive search firm, announced the appointment of Esperanza Aguirre as Chairwoman of its Advisory Council, an office compatible with the role of Chairwoman of the People's Party of the Community of Madrid.[19]
Designated in 2015 byMariano Rajoy as the PP's Mayoral candidate for the municipality of Madrid, she subsequently ran first in the PP's list for theMay 2015 Madrid municipal election. The PP's list obtained a simple majority of 20 seats out of a total 57, short of the qualified majority needed to remain in government without support from other political parties. She then unsuccessfully pressed to reach a three-way deal between the PP,Citizens and theSpanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) to avoid the investiture as Mayor's of the candidate of the left-wingAhora Madrid,Manuela Carmena, with the support of the PSOE's municipal councillors.[20] Soon after the investiture of Carmena as Mayor on 13 June 2015, Aguirre unsuccessfully proposed again another deal with Citizens and the PSOE to oust Carmena.[21]
In 2016, Aguirre resigned from her position as regional party president, ostensibly due to the many corruption cases in the Madrilenian PP under her watch. She retained her position of opposition leader in the Madrid municipal government, and the overall maneuver was widely interpreted as a broadside against her party rival, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.[22]
On 24 April 2017, she resigned as municipal councillor (and from all relating offices) after the imprisonment of her former right-hand man,Ignacio González (also her successor as regional president) for misappropriation of public funds in the Lezo corruption scandal. She was replaced as spokesperson of the PP municipal group byJosé Luis Martínez-Almeida.[23]
After her retirement, she divided her spare time between the dedication to her 6 grandchildren and her passion forgolf.[24] Following an August 2019 request filed by the Prosecution service of theAudiencia Nacional before the instructing judge Manuel García-Castellón,[25] the former charged Aguirre (along with her successors in the presidency of the Madrid region,Ignacio González andCristina Cifuentes)[26] with alleged crimes of illicit funding, diversion of public money and document forgery on 2 September 2019 in the proceedings of the Púnica corruption case. García-Castellón, pointed out on a tentative basis the alleged "decisive and essential" role of Aguirre in the PP's illegal funding scheme, through which more than 6 million euros were subtracted from 8 regional ministries and agencies.[27][28]
On 19 March 2020 alongside her husband, Aguirre was admitted to the hospital after being tested positive forCOVID-19 duringcoronavirus pandemic in Spain.[29]
Esperanza Aguirre self-defines as a "liberal".[30] Known by her professedanglophilia,[31] she has cited her admiration for the figure ofMargaret Thatcher.[32] According to Jorge del Palacio, Aguirre aimed to develop a Spanish version of the uneasy union betweenconservatism and the liberalism inspired byFriederich Hayek.[33] She has often been regarded as a leading figure of the most conservative wing of the PP,[34][35] and, having reportedly held political differences and an uneasy personal relationship with PP's leaderMariano Rajoy, she personally asked the latter for a change in the leadership of the party before theJune 2016 general election.[36][37]
Grand Cross of the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III (22 January 1999).[38]
Grand Cross of the Royal and American Order of Isabella the Catholic (23 January 2004).[39]_GC.svg)
Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit (23 April 2004).[40]
Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise (26 December 2014)[41]
Gold Medal of the Community of Madrid (20 April 2012).[42]
Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru (8 June 2004)[43]_Ribbon.svg)
Honorary Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (4 February 2004).[44]
Officer of the Legion of Honour.[45]According to the Order of May 8, 2000 adapting the Regulations of the Royal and Very Distinguished Order of Carlos III to the current circumstances and conditions, the degree of Lady's Band, granted prior to the entry into force of the This provision is equated to that of the Grand Cross.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Luis María Huete | First Deputy Mayor of theCity Council of Madrid 1995–1996 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded byas Minister of Education | Minister of Education and Culture 1996–1999 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded byas Minister of Culture | ||
| Preceded by Juan Ignacio Barrero | President of the Senate 1999–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Community of Madrid 2003–2012 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Luis María Huete | Leader of thePeople's Party Group in theCity Council of Madrid 1995–1996 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Miguel Ángel Villanueva | Leader of thePeople's Party Group in theAssembly of Madrid 2003 | Succeeded by Antonio Beteta |
| Preceded by | President of thePeople's Party of the Community of Madrid 2004–2016 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Spokesperson of thePeople's Group in theCity Council of Madrid 2015–2017 | Succeeded by |
 | ||
