Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón
Encyclopedia
Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón Jiménez (born December 11, 1958) is a Spanish
politician and mayor of Madrid. A stalwart of the conservative People's Party (PP)
, he has previously been a leading figure in various local and national legislative bodies.
. His father, José María Ruiz-Gallardón, was a member of the leadership of the People's Alliance
(AP), precursor to the present-day People's Party. He attended secondary school
in Madrid at the Jesuit
School de Nuestra Señora del Recuerdo, where he was an outstanding student, and then studied law at the Universidad San Pablo CEU
.
He is married to María del Mar Utrera, who is the daughter of José Utrera Molina, a former Minister of the Franco regime. They have four sons, Alberto, José, Ignacio and Rodrigo.
Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon is a cousin of Trinidad Jiménez
, the current Foreign Affairs Minister of Spain.
His great-grandfather was the composer Isaac Albéniz
.
at the age of 23. He attained the position, ranking second in the twenty eighth year. He was given a position in the Málaga
Provincial Court, where he served for a short time until given leave to take charge of the party's legal counsel.
In May 1983 he was elected to Madrid city council. In February 1986, at the party's Seventh National Congress, he joined its Executive Committee. In the same year, he ran unsuccessfully as a Senate
candidate for Palencia
in the general elections but finished fifth, 301 votes behind the successful PSOE candidate, in a district where four candidates were elected. In the aftermath, the secretary general of his party, Jorge Verstrynge, retired and Ruiz-Gallardón became the interim secretary general until the Party Congress could convene.
His next political position was in December 1986, when the regional leadership of AP in Madrid nominated him as candidate for the presidency of the Autonomous Community of Madrid with no eventual success. In February 1987, the Eighth Extraordinary Congress of the AP appointed Antonio Hernández Mancha as chairman. Ruiz-Gallardón left his interim general secretary position and was named one of the four vice-chairmans of the party.
Ruiz-Gallardón was elected Deputy of the Madrid Assembly
on June 10, 1987. Only one month later, he was elected to the Senate
in the delegation designated by the Madrid Assembly and named spokesman of the AP Parliamentary Group body. On October 22, 1988, Ruiz-Gallardón resigned his party positions as the result of a misunderstanding with chairman Mancha over an agreement with the CDS regarding Assembly rules. At the party's Ninth Congress in January 1989, Mancha was replaced as chairman by Manuel Fraga. The party was re-founded as the People's Party
(PP), and Ruiz-Gallardón was appointed to the National Executive Committee and became president on the Committee for Conflicts and Discipline.
Following the general elections on October 29, 1989, Ruiz-Gallardón continued serving as a senator for Madrid and, as in the previous legislature, headed the PP Parliamentary Group in the Senate. He returned to the PP's National Executive Committee at the Tenth Congress, this time with José María Aznar
as party chairman. He also retained his position as president of the Committee on Conflicts. In April 1990, he headed an internal investigation of the Caso Naseiro. This investigation resulted in the expulsion of several party officials.
First among his party's candidates for the Senate in Madrid in the general elections of June 6, 1993, Ruiz-Gallardón was once again elected to the Senate. He continued as Spokesman of the PP Parliamentary Group, and subsequently resigned his corresponding position in the Madrid Assembly.
During his tenure as regional president, Ruiz Gallardón obtained a high degree of popularity, because of his apparently moderate attitude, especially compared to several leaders of his Party. Following José María Aznar
's announcement that he would not seek re-election as Prime Minister in 2004, Gallardón was one of the PP leaders that were mentioned as possible successors by the mainstream media.
Nicknamed ironically the "Pharaoh
" by many locals, the mayor has created an urban renewal plan for Madrid that included the undergrounding of parts of the M30 motorway, the redevelopment of the Manzanares River bank, a push for the virtual gentrification
of dwindling historic downtown areas, and a reform of the existing finance laws. In fact, the Madrid bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics figured as the most ambitious component of his plan despite being planned by his predecessor, José María Álvarez del Manzano
. Several other projects, such as the four skyscrapers under construction in the old training grounds of Real Madrid
, have boosted his urban plans.
In May 2006, Baroness Carmen Cervera
publicly demonstrated against his plan to reform Paseo del Prado
, as the baroness feared for the effects on her co-managed Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
.
Gallardón is well known as a centrist politician, which places him on the moderate wing of his conservative political party. During his administration Madrid began following the new same-sex marriage legislation
supported by the national government and approved by the Spanish Congress of Deputies
.
, who is also the Madrid regional chairwoman of PP. In the time to the upcoming for the 2008 general election
, Ruiz-Gallardón announced his intention to be placed in the Madrid (Spanish Congress Electoral District)
congressional list of PP. Being a mayor, his inclusion in the list would have been an exception to the Party by-laws that ban mayors of cities over 100,000 inhabitants from running to the Congress of Deputies. This move was not approved by Aguirre who announced her intention to resign as President of Madrid in order to run for national deputy as well (Members of the regional legislatures are barred from the Cortes Generales
). On January 15, 2008, Mr Rajoy (leader of the PP Party) announced that Mr. Gallardón would not be included in the PP lists for General Elections. Mrs. Aguirre had won the intense internal battle with Mr.Gallardón.
Following this announcement, Mr. Ruiz-Gallardón indicated his intention to retire from politics, although the next day he softened his response, and said he will "reflect" about his political future after the March 2008 General Elections.
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
politician and mayor of Madrid. A stalwart of the conservative People's Party (PP)
People's Party (Spain)
The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship...
, he has previously been a leading figure in various local and national legislative bodies.
Personal life
Ruiz-Gallardón was born in MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. His father, José María Ruiz-Gallardón, was a member of the leadership of the People's Alliance
People's Alliance
People's Alliance may refer to:*The People's Alliance , Belgian political party which split in 2001 into the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie and Spirit...
(AP), precursor to the present-day People's Party. He attended secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
in Madrid at the Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
School de Nuestra Señora del Recuerdo, where he was an outstanding student, and then studied law at the Universidad San Pablo CEU
Centro de Estudios Universitarios
The former Centro de Estudios Universitarios , currently called Fundación Universitaria San Pablo CEU is a foundation for the development of education...
.
He is married to María del Mar Utrera, who is the daughter of José Utrera Molina, a former Minister of the Franco regime. They have four sons, Alberto, José, Ignacio and Rodrigo.
Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon is a cousin of Trinidad Jiménez
Trinidad Jiménez
Trinidad Jiménez García-Herrera is a Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politician and is currently Spain's Foreign Affairs Minister....
, the current Foreign Affairs Minister of Spain.
His great-grandfather was the composer Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
.
Political life
As a lawyer, Ruiz-Gallardón sat for exams to begin a career as a prosecutorProsecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
at the age of 23. He attained the position, ranking second in the twenty eighth year. He was given a position in the Málaga
Málaga (province)
The Province of Málaga is located on the southern coast of Spain, in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the South, and by the provinces of Cádiz, Sevilla, Córdoba and Granada.Its area is 7,308 km²...
Provincial Court, where he served for a short time until given leave to take charge of the party's legal counsel.
In May 1983 he was elected to Madrid city council. In February 1986, at the party's Seventh National Congress, he joined its Executive Committee. In the same year, he ran unsuccessfully as a Senate
Spanish Senate
The Senate of Spain is the upper house of Spain's parliament, the . It is made up of 264 members: 208 elected by popular vote, and 56 appointed by the regional legislatures. All senators serve four-year terms, though regional legislatures may recall their appointees at any time.The last election...
candidate for Palencia
Palencia
Palencia is a city south of Tierra de Campos, in north-northwest Spain, the capital of the province of Palencia in the autonomous community of Castile-Leon...
in the general elections but finished fifth, 301 votes behind the successful PSOE candidate, in a district where four candidates were elected. In the aftermath, the secretary general of his party, Jorge Verstrynge, retired and Ruiz-Gallardón became the interim secretary general until the Party Congress could convene.
His next political position was in December 1986, when the regional leadership of AP in Madrid nominated him as candidate for the presidency of the Autonomous Community of Madrid with no eventual success. In February 1987, the Eighth Extraordinary Congress of the AP appointed Antonio Hernández Mancha as chairman. Ruiz-Gallardón left his interim general secretary position and was named one of the four vice-chairmans of the party.
Ruiz-Gallardón was elected Deputy of the Madrid Assembly
Madrid Assembly
The Madrid Assembly is the unicameral regional legislature of the Autonomous Community of Madrid since the approval of the Madrid Charter of Autonomy in 1983....
on June 10, 1987. Only one month later, he was elected to the Senate
Spanish Senate
The Senate of Spain is the upper house of Spain's parliament, the . It is made up of 264 members: 208 elected by popular vote, and 56 appointed by the regional legislatures. All senators serve four-year terms, though regional legislatures may recall their appointees at any time.The last election...
in the delegation designated by the Madrid Assembly and named spokesman of the AP Parliamentary Group body. On October 22, 1988, Ruiz-Gallardón resigned his party positions as the result of a misunderstanding with chairman Mancha over an agreement with the CDS regarding Assembly rules. At the party's Ninth Congress in January 1989, Mancha was replaced as chairman by Manuel Fraga. The party was re-founded as the People's Party
People's Party (Spain)
The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship...
(PP), and Ruiz-Gallardón was appointed to the National Executive Committee and became president on the Committee for Conflicts and Discipline.
Following the general elections on October 29, 1989, Ruiz-Gallardón continued serving as a senator for Madrid and, as in the previous legislature, headed the PP Parliamentary Group in the Senate. He returned to the PP's National Executive Committee at the Tenth Congress, this time with José María Aznar
José María Aznar
José María Alfredo Aznar López served as the Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He is on the board of directors of News Corporation.-Early life:...
as party chairman. He also retained his position as president of the Committee on Conflicts. In April 1990, he headed an internal investigation of the Caso Naseiro. This investigation resulted in the expulsion of several party officials.
First among his party's candidates for the Senate in Madrid in the general elections of June 6, 1993, Ruiz-Gallardón was once again elected to the Senate. He continued as Spokesman of the PP Parliamentary Group, and subsequently resigned his corresponding position in the Madrid Assembly.
President of the Community of Madrid
On May 28, 1995 Ruiz Gallardón ran for the presidency of the Community of Madrid on PP's Ticket, securing for the first time a majority of seats in the Assembly. He was elected President of the Community of Madrid by the Madrid Assembly one month later . Ruiz Gallardón ran for re-election in the 1999 elections, again securing a majority of seats.During his tenure as regional president, Ruiz Gallardón obtained a high degree of popularity, because of his apparently moderate attitude, especially compared to several leaders of his Party. Following José María Aznar
José María Aznar
José María Alfredo Aznar López served as the Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He is on the board of directors of News Corporation.-Early life:...
's announcement that he would not seek re-election as Prime Minister in 2004, Gallardón was one of the PP leaders that were mentioned as possible successors by the mainstream media.
Mayor of Madrid
Encouraged by the Prime Minister José María Aznar, Gallardón became the PP's candidate for the Madrid mayoral election of 2003. He was successful in his bid, obtaining a majority of the votes. One of his first decisions was to increase city taxes as a means to back his future plans for the city.Nicknamed ironically the "Pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
" by many locals, the mayor has created an urban renewal plan for Madrid that included the undergrounding of parts of the M30 motorway, the redevelopment of the Manzanares River bank, a push for the virtual gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
of dwindling historic downtown areas, and a reform of the existing finance laws. In fact, the Madrid bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics figured as the most ambitious component of his plan despite being planned by his predecessor, José María Álvarez del Manzano
José María Álvarez del Manzano
José María Álvarez del Manzano y López del Hierro is a Spanish politician for the People's Party. Although born in Seville he has lived in Madrid since he was 3 years old. He studied at the Colegio Nuestra Señora del Recuerdo. He was the mayor of Madrid from 1991 to 2003...
. Several other projects, such as the four skyscrapers under construction in the old training grounds of Real Madrid
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club have won a record 31 La Liga titles, the Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional , 18 Copas del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la...
, have boosted his urban plans.
In May 2006, Baroness Carmen Cervera
Carmen Cervera
María del Carmen Rosario Soledad Cervera y Fernández de la Guerra, Dowager Baroness Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva , daughter of Enrique Cervera y Manent and wife...
publicly demonstrated against his plan to reform Paseo del Prado
Paseo del Prado
The Paseo del Prado is one of the main boulevards in Madrid, Spain. It runs north-south between the Plaza de Cibeles and the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V , with the Plaza de Cánovas del Castillo lying approximately in the middle...
, as the baroness feared for the effects on her co-managed Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, or in Spanish Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, is an art museum near the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain. It is known as a part of the "Golden Triangle of Art", which also includes the Prado and the Reina Sofia galleries...
.
Gallardón is well known as a centrist politician, which places him on the moderate wing of his conservative political party. During his administration Madrid began following the new same-sex marriage legislation
Same-sex marriage in Spain
Same-sex marriage in Spain has been legal since July 3, 2005. In 2004, the nation's newly elected social democratic government, led by President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, began a campaign for its legalization, including the right of adoption by same-sex couples...
supported by the national government and approved by the Spanish Congress of Deputies
Spanish Congress of Deputies
The Spanish Congress of Deputies is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. It has 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation in constituencies matching the Spanish provinces using the D'Hondt method. Deputies serve four-year terms...
.
2008 Developments
Ruiz-Gallardón has been considered of one of the most possible future leaders of PP, his moderate views make him one of the most valued politicians in the Gallup polls, rivalling in the race for leadership with the President of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza AguirreEsperanza Aguirre
Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma, Countess of Murillo, Grandee of Spain, DBE is a Spanish politician and the current President of Madrid...
, who is also the Madrid regional chairwoman of PP. In the time to the upcoming for the 2008 general election
Spanish general election, 2008
Legislative elections for the Spanish Cortes Generales were held on March 9, 2008. The elections were for 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies, and the 208 directly elected seats in the upper house, the Senate, determining the Prime Minister of Spain...
, Ruiz-Gallardón announced his intention to be placed in the Madrid (Spanish Congress Electoral District)
Madrid (Spanish Congress Electoral District)
Madrid is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It has the largest electorate of all the 52 districts. Madrid is the largest city...
congressional list of PP. Being a mayor, his inclusion in the list would have been an exception to the Party by-laws that ban mayors of cities over 100,000 inhabitants from running to the Congress of Deputies. This move was not approved by Aguirre who announced her intention to resign as President of Madrid in order to run for national deputy as well (Members of the regional legislatures are barred from the Cortes Generales
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales is the legislature of Spain. It is a bicameral parliament, composed of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate . The Cortes has power to enact any law and to amend the constitution...
). On January 15, 2008, Mr Rajoy (leader of the PP Party) announced that Mr. Gallardón would not be included in the PP lists for General Elections. Mrs. Aguirre had won the intense internal battle with Mr.Gallardón.
Following this announcement, Mr. Ruiz-Gallardón indicated his intention to retire from politics, although the next day he softened his response, and said he will "reflect" about his political future after the March 2008 General Elections.