Rajoy, << rah HOY, >> Mariano (1955-…), served as prime minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018. From 2004 to 2018, he was leader of the center-right Popular Party (PP), also called the People’s Party. In June 2018, scandals within the Popular Party forced Rajoy to resign as prime minister, and he was replaced by Pedro Sánchez of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). Rajoy then stepped down as PP leader.
Rajoy began his political career in 1981 as a member of Galicia’s regional parliament. Galicia, in northwestern Spain, is one of 17 Spanish regions classified as autonomous (self-ruling) communities. Rajoy represented the Popular Alliance (AP), which became the Popular Party in 1989. Rajoy held a number of positions in city and regional government in Galicia. In the late 1980’s, he served as general secretary of the AP of Galicia.
Rajoy represented the Galician province of Pontevedra in the national Congress of Deputies briefly in 1986, then from 1989 to 2004. The Congress of Deputies is the lower house of the Cortes, the legislature of Spain. Since 2004, Rajoy has represented Madrid, as leaders of Spain’s political parties traditionally have done. Rajoy also held several cabinet positions from 1996 to 2003, under Prime Minister José María Aznar. Such posts included minister of public administration, minister of education and culture, and minister of the interior. From 2000 to 2003, Rajoy was first vice president of the government, the second in command after the prime minister.
In 2004, Rajoy succeeded Aznar as leader of the governing Popular Party and became the party’s next candidate for prime minister. However, the PP lost general elections to the PSOE in 2004 and 2008. The PP finally defeated the PSOE in a general election in November 2011. Rajoy became prime minister in December. He took office during a public debt crisis and a time of extremely high unemployment. He pledged to cut government spending and lower Spain’s budget deficit. See Spain (The early 2000’s) .
The Popular Party won the most votes, but not a majority, in a general election in December 2015. But the leading political parties could not agree on a coalition government. Rajoy remained in office as caretaker prime minister. A new election took place in June 2016, and the PP again won the most votes without winning a majority. In October, faced with the possibility of a third election, Spain’s parliament voted to allow Rajoy to form a minority government.
Mariano Rajoy Brey was born on March 27, 1955, in Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia. The son of a judge, he received a law degree from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1978. In 1979, in his early 20’s, Rajoy became Spain’s youngest property registrar—that is, an official who supervises a system of property transactions. Rajoy married fellow Galician Elvira Fernández Balboa in 1996. The couple have two sons, Mariano and Juan. Rajoy is the author of an autobiography titled In Confidence (2011).
