Pablo Casado | |
|---|---|
 Casado in 2024 | |
| Leader of the Opposition | |
| In office 21 July 2018 – 2 April 2022 | |
| Monarch | Felipe VI |
| Prime Minister | Pedro Sánchez |
| Preceded by | Mariano Rajoy |
| Succeeded by | Alberto Núñez Feijóo |
| President of thePeople's Party | |
| In office 21 July 2018 – 2 April 2022 | |
| Secretary-General | Teodoro García Egea |
| Preceded by | Mariano Rajoy |
| Succeeded by | Alberto Núñez Feijóo |
| Deputy Secretary-General of Communications of thePeople's Party | |
| In office 18 June 2015 – 21 July 2018 | |
| President | Mariano Rajoy |
| Preceded by | Carlos Floriano |
| Succeeded by | Marta González |
| Member of theCongress of Deputies | |
| In office 13 December 2011 – 4 April 2022 | |
| Succeeded by | Percival Manglano |
| Constituency | Ávila (2011–2019) Madrid (2019–2022) |
| Member of theAssembly of Madrid | |
| In office 13 June 2007 – 9 July 2009 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Pablo Casado Blanco (1981-02-01)1 February 1981 (age 44) |
| Political party | People's Party |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Douai School[1] ICADE CES Cardenal Cisneros King Juan Carlos University |
Pablo Casado Blanco (Spanish pronunciation:[ˈpaβlokaˈsaðoˈβlaŋko]; born 1 February 1981) is a Spanish former politician. He was a member of theCongress of Deputies representingMadrid until 4 April 2022,[2] having previously representedÁvila between 2011 and 2019.[3] From 2015 to 2018, he also served as vice secretary general of communication of thePeople's Party (PP).[4] From July 2018 until April 2022, he was the president of the PP.[5][6]
Casado was born on 1 February 1981 inPalencia; he has five brothers. His father, Miguel Casado González,[7] was a doctor and his mother, Esther Blanco Ruiz,[7] a nursing university professor. His family owns anophthalmologic clinic in his native city.[8] He studied at theColegio Castilla, managed by theMarist Brothers, and took the 8th year of the General Basic Education (EGB) atDouai School in the United Kingdom.[1][9]
Casado started his university studies in law at theICADE (a centre located in Madrid and integrated within theUniversidad Pontificia Comillas) in 1999, but he switched to another centre in 2004,[10][n 1] enrolling in theCES Cardenal Cisneros, a privately managed centre owned by afoundation of theCommunity of Madrid and attached (for the purpose of the issuance of the degree) to the publicComplutense University of Madrid (UCM).[10] He ultimately obtained his degree in law in the CES Cardenal Cisneros in September 2007 after having reportedly passed half of the credits of the 5-year licenciature in four months of that year.[10] The centre issued a statement where they denied accusations of impropriety or preferential treatment regarding the student Casado.[15]
Casado has a BA in Business Administration and Management and an MA in Administrative Law from theKing Juan Carlos University (URJC).[16] The latter degree is a source of significant controversy, as Casado was found to have obtained it from the now controverted School of Administrative Law of that university without ever attending any class, taking any test, and turning in a final dissertation.[17] An internal investigation by the URJC confirmed that the degrees were legitimate and uncovered no impropriety.[18] However, the Supreme Court closed its review in September 2018, finding no evidence of criminal wrongdoing and concluding that any preferential treatment did not constitute a crime.[19][20]
Casado has said that he also earned a postgraduate degree atHarvard University; he had in fact attended a four-day course in 2008 at the Madrid campus ofIESE Business School which is allied withHarvard Business School. No academic requirements were needed to attend the course, and attendance was the only requirement for completion.[21] TheSupreme Court of Spain decided in September 2019 that he did not evidently violate laws againstprevarication or bribery, but said the matter “could deserve other types of consideration outside criminal law."[22][23]
Casado entered politics and joined thePeople's Party (PP) in 2003 when he was still a student.[24][25] He presided over the regional branch of the PP's youth organization in theCommunity of Madrid, known as theNew Generations (NNGG), between 2005 and 2013.[26][27][28] He made an initiation journey toCuba in early 2007 (similar to the 2012 travel by his right-hand in the Madrilenian NNGGÁngel Carromero),[n 2] where he met withCuban dissidents such asOswaldo Payá. He left written testimony of it in pieces published inLibertad Digital andEl Mundo.[30][8]
In 2007, he was included as candidate in the PP list for theelection to the Assembly of Madrid; he became a member of the 8th term of theregional legislature (in June),[31] where he held the functions of spokesman in the parliamentary Commission of Justice and Public Administrations and assistant spokesman in the Commission of Budget and Finance.[32]
Casado resigned as regional legislator in July 2009.[33] In June 2009, he married Isabel Torres Orts;[34] the couple have a daughter Paloma and a son Pablo.[35] Isabel Torres is from a wealthy industrial family inElche, and works as a psychologist in a private clinic in Madrid.[36]
Between 2009 and 2012, Casado directed the office of former Prime MinisterJosé María Aznar. During this period, in 2010, he became one of the founders (along withCarlos Bustelo,Rafael Bardají and Enrique Navarro Gil) of the Friends of Israel Initiativethink tank.[37][38]
Casado was included as candidate in the PP list for the constituency ofÁvila in theNovember 2011 general election and became a member of theCongress of Deputies. He was subsequently re-elected in the2015 and2016 general elections. He was designated spokesman of the Campaign Committee of the PP for thelocal andregional elections of May 2015.[39][40] Later in June 2015, he was appointed vice secretary general of communication of the PP by the party presidentMariano Rajoy.[41]
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After themotion of no confidence,Mariano Rajoy resigned from the leadership of the PP, Pablo Casado ran as pre-candidate to the primary election to the presidency of the party. He introduced himself as a (potential) leader intending to recover voters fromCitizens andVox.[42] Casado obtained the second most votes out of 6 candidates afterSoraya Sáenz de Santamaría, formerDeputy Prime Minister of Spain, who received the most votes among the party members with a margin of 1,500 votes. On July 21, 2018, during the 19th Extraordinary National Congress of the PP, a final vote among 3,082 party delegates was held in order to decide the new leader of the PP between Sáenz de Santamaría and Casado.[43][44] He won the voting among the delegates with 1,701 votes (57,2%) versus 1,250 (42%) votes to Sáenz de Santamaría out of 2,973 votes, being proclaimed as the new president, in what was considered a party swing towards the right,[45][46][47] as well as a hardline conservative.[48]
In response to a budget defeat, Prime MinisterPedro Sánchez dissolved the Cortes Generales,[49] giving Casado an early test of his leadership, which was also in the aftermath of the first right-of-centre government in Andalucia.[50] The election results proved disappointing for Casado, his party losing over half of their seats in the Cortes Generales, with Albert Rivera's Citizens, overtaking them as the foremost party of the centre-right in many regions of Spain, and the new far-right Vox also taking a significant number of voters.[51][52] This major loss was devastating for Casado and for the 2019 election campaign manager,Javier Maroto, who not only lost his seat in the Basque country toEH Bildu, but was fired by PP.[53] Casado refused to resign; many members' worries about his controversial leadership, described as "a suicide",[54] were confirmed in light of the defeat, as he has now U-turned back to the political centre,[55][56] placing much of the blame of the loss on Cs and Vox for splintering the vote.[57][58]
Casado adopted an active role during the COVID-19 lockdown, refraining from restricting public activities, visiting disparate locations such asMercamadrid, a hotel, a sheep farm and the headquarters of the association of vehicle producers; he proceeded to criticise the Government of Spain from those platforms.[59] Nevertheless, under Casado’s leadership, the PP made a significant recovery in the November 2019 general election, increasing its representation from 66 to 89 seats and reasserting itself as the main opposition force.[60] In May 2020, he established abstention on the vote on the extension of theState of Alarm as the party line.[61]
His leadership of the PP was challenged in 2022 byIsabel Díaz Ayuso, the popular president of the community of Madrid, leading to a dramatic internal conflict. Ayuso went so far as to accuse Casado of maneuvering to "destroy" her. A large number of PP leaders and activists demanded Casado resign, but he refused. The president of Galicia,Alberto Núñez Feijóo, considered the most respected figure in the PP, said that "the situation is unsustainable. Pablo Casado's reign is coming to an end. We have to make difficult decisions."[62] Casado resigned as PP leader and an MP on 4 April, and was replaced as party leader by Feijóo.[63] Despite the public feud, Casado presided over an orderly transition at the April 2022 extraordinary congress, where delegates elected Alberto Núñez Feijóo as his successor with 98.35% of the vote.[64][65][66] In his farewell address to party members, Casado emphasized his loyalty to the PP and appealed for unity, expressing hope that the organization would continue to serve as a credible alternative in Spanish politics.[67]
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He has been described asneoconservative (but Casado has consistently referred to himself as a “liberal-conservative,” focusing on tax reductions, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, and promoting family-oriented policies within the broader People’s Party program.[68]), as well as close toJosé María Aznar andEsperanza Aguirre.[69][70] He describes himself asliberal-conservative.[71] According toJosé Luis Villacañas, Casado's discourse incorporates several of the core tenets of the Spanish right, including an emphasis onCatholicism, the secondary role of women, a stress on the unity of the Spanish nation,anti-abortion views, andAtlanticism.[72] According to Antonio Elorza, Casado's ascension represents the comeback of the reactionary PP in the name of principles and fidelity topolitical lineage: the family as a totem, a fiscal counter-reform, a heavy hand in Catalonia, a preventively repressive legislation andFrancisco Franco's corpse remaining atValle de los Caídos.[73]
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In October 2017, Casado vouched on a personal basis for a potential reform of theOrganic Law of Political Parties, which would include the illegalization of political parties promoting the independence of a part of Spain.[75] Annoyed by the decision of a German court to grant the extradition of Puigdemont to Spain solely for the charge of embezzlement in July 2018 (which he branded as "humiliation"), he raised the possibility of abolishing theSchengen Area.[76] In September 2018, he directly ordered the PP members of theEuropean Parliament to abstain in the voting of theSargentini report calling for triggeringArticle 7 proceedings against the Hungarian government ofViktor Orbán.[77] Also in July 2018, he inveighed against "gender ideology", which he described as a form of "social collectivism the centre-right must fight against".[78] He is also critical of theright of abortion, as well aseuthanasia.[79] On 21 July 2018 during the National Congress of the PP, he vowed to "reconquer the Catalan people". ReferencingTabarnia, a hypothetical anti-independentist breakaway from Catalonia, he said that he would be "turning the hypothetical Tabarnia into a real Tabarnia".[80][81] Under his leadership, the PP recovered significantly in the November 2019 general election—rising from 66 to 89 seats—and re-established itself as Spain’s main opposition force.[82][83]
Casado considers the "Hispanidad" to be the mankind's greatest feat, only comparable toRomanization.[84] According to Elorza, in his message, void of any criticism, Casado recovers the formulation of the concept of Hispanidad of the 1930s and reaffirms a particular idea of Spain, in which history, turned into a mechanism of exaltation, is used to propel a nationalist mobilization.[85] The use by Casado of terminology, such as accusing NGOs of being "human traffickers", while also criticizing a perceived "do-goodism" in the Sánchez government regarding its migration policy has drawn comparisons toItalian deputy prime ministerMatteo Salvini by Steven Forti, of theRolling Stone magazine.[86][n 3] He also said that action for the historical memory of Franco's crimes should be brought about by consensus, and that Spain should concentrate on problems of the present, not the past.[88]
Amonarchist,[89] Casado vocally defended the institution and proclaimed "I will always defend the King of Spain" in 2018 while he announced his opposition to opening a parliamentary commission aiming to investigate the irregularities allegedly committed by KingemeritusJuan Carlos I thatCorinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein revealed.[90] He has also considered as good move forward getting used to include praises to the King of Spain in everyday conversations,[n 4] and deemed acts such as paying the pensions as a figurated way of sayingViva el Rey ("Long Live the King").[92][91] On 20 November 2021, he attended a specialmass in Granada in the honour of Franco on the anniversary of his death. The Francisco Franco National Foundation publicly thanked Casado's attendance.[93] The only explanation given by his political party was that he did not know what the mass was about, despite Franco flags and symbols being present in the church.[93][94] On the economic front, Casado promised to eliminate taxes on wealth, inheritance and gifts, and to lower income and corporate taxes.[95]
Following his departure from active politics, Casado co-founded Hyperion Fund, a venture capital vehicle specialising in dual-use defence, aerospace and cybersecurity technologies; within its first year it raised its €150 million target and secured institutional commitments from Indra, Sapa, Prosegur and Fond-ICO (the investment arm of the Instituto de Crédito Oficial).[96][97][98] The vehicle was approved by Spain’s securities regulator (CNMV) in January 2024 and was covered by the financial press at launch; it is managed by Singular Bank Asset Management with Nortia Investment Holding as anchor investor, and Casado co‑founded it alongside investor Ricardo Gómez‑Acebo Botín.[99][100]
On 18 June 2024, Hyperion announced a first close of €53 million (around 35% of its €150 million target) and the start of its investment phase; the fund indicated a focus on dual‑use defence, aerospace, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, explicitly excluding weapons and lethal equipment in line with Article 8 of the EU’s SFDR.[101][102][103] In early 2025, the final close at the €150 million target was reported again, with the fund indicating it expected to deploy roughly a quarter of that capital during 2025 (circa €38 million).[104]
| Election | List | Constituency | List position | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 Madrilenian regional election | PP | - | 40th (out of 120)[105] | Elected |
| 2011 Spanish general election | PP | Ávila | 2nd (out of 3)[106] | Elected |
| Las Navas del Marquéslocal election, 2015 | PP | - | 13th (out of 13)[107] | Unelected |
| 2015 Spanish general election | PP | Ávila | 1st (out of 3)[108] | Elected |
| 2016 Spanish general election | PP | Ávila | 1st (out of 3)[109] | Elected |
| 2019 Spanish general election | PP | Madrid | 1st (out of 37) | Elected |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President of thePeople's Party 2018–2022 | Succeeded by |
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| Vacant Title last held by Pedro Sánchez | Leader of the Opposition 2018–2022 | Succeeded by |
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