María San Gil Noain is a Spanish

Politics of Spain

The politics of Spain take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy, whereby the Monarch is the Head of State and the President of the Government is the head of government in a multi-party system. Executive power is vested in the government...

 Basque

Basque people

The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...

 politician.

Born in San Sebastián

San Sebastián

Donostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...

, San Gil graduated with a degree in Trilingual Biblical Philology from the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. In 1991 she began working for the San Sebastián city council, representing the conservative Partido Popular

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...

. On January 23, 1995 she witnessed the assassination of her colleague Gregorio Ordóñez by the Basque terrorist group ETA

ETA

ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...

, and thereafter decided that she would spend her political career fighting terrorism.

Rising steadily in prominence, in 2003 she became the leader of the Partido Popular's regional representation in the Basque Country

Basque Country (autonomous community)

The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

. In the regional elections of 2005 she was a candidate for Basque regional president or lehendakari

Lehendakari

The President of the Basque Government , usually known in English as the Basque regional president, is the head of government of Basque Country. The president leads the executive branch of the regional government....

, but lost out to the nationalist candidate Juan Jose Ibarretxe of the EAJ-PNV.

On April 18, 2007 she announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had already been operated on once. On May 21, 2008 after a meeting with Mariano Rajoy

Mariano Rajoy

Mariano Rajoy Brey is a Spanish People's Party politician and is the Prime Minister-elect since 20 November 2011. He will be sworn into office in mid-December 2011....

she informed him of her intention to resign from the leadership position in the regional representation of the Partido Popular.

San Gil is married and has two children.