Mariano Rajoy

Mariano Rajoy Brey (Santiago de Compostela, March 27, 1955) is a Spanish politician of the Popular Party, sixth president of the Government of Spain after the transition, between 2011 and 2018. In the He currently works as a commercial registrar.

Rajoy was born in Santiago de Compostela into a family of lawyers. He has a law degree from the University of Santiago de Compostela. At the age of twenty-three, he passed the opposition to the Corps of Property and Commercial Registrars of Spain, thus becoming the youngest registrar in Spain to date. His first political position, when he was a member of Alianza Popular, was a seat on the Parliament of Galicia in 1981. He has held numerous positions since then, both in Galicia and in the two governments of José María Aznar. He has been Minister and Vice President of the Government five times between 2000 and 2003. In 2003 he was proposed by Aznar as his successor at the head of the Popular Party, a position to which he was elected by the party in September of that same year. He was leader of the parliamentary opposition during the two terms (2004-2008 and 2008-2011) of the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

As a result of the victory of his party by an absolute majority in the general elections of November 20, 2011, on December 21, 2011 he became President of the Government.

Rajoy's first term was marked by the Great Recession. The most important of the economic policies was the labor reform. In June 2012, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos announced that Spain had obtained a bank bailout from the European Union. The harsh adjustment policies and "structural reforms" applied by the government failed to stop the crisis, which caused a sharp drop in the Popular Party in the polls, aggravated by the coming to light of numerous cases of corruption that seriously damaged the image of the party. On June 2, 2014, the King Juan Carlos I announced his abdication. Rajoy's second term was marked by the 2017 Catalan independence referendum and Catalonia's unilateral declaration of independence.

His presidency ended after the motion of censure that the socialists registered on May 25, 2018 as a result of the ruling in the Gürtel Case, which considered proven that the Popular Party had profitably benefited from said corruption scheme since 1989 The proposal was debated and approved on June 1, 2018 with 180 votes in favor (PSOE, Unidos Podemos, ERC, PDeCAT, PNV, Compromís, EH Bildu and NCa), 169 against (PP, Cs, UPN and FORO Asturias) and 1 abstention (CC).

Mariano Rajoy announced his retirement from politics on June 13, 2018. He rejoined his position as property registrar in Santa Pola to later move to Madrid.

Biography

Early years and training

Mariano Rajoy Brey is the grandson of Enrique Rajoy Leloup, one of the drafters of the Galician Statute of Autonomy in 1932 who was removed from university teaching by the Franco dictatorship until the early 1950s, and is the son of the jurist Mariano Rajoy Sobredo (1921-2018), president of the Provincial Court of Pontevedra, the city where he lived since he was 15 years old. His mother was Olga Brey López, a nurse who died in 1993. Rajoy, with a strictly religious maternal family, received a Catholic upbringing.

Graduated in Law from the University of Santiago de Compostela, he began to prepare the oppositions to the Corps of property registrars in the last year of his degree, approving them the following year when he was twenty-three years old and being the youngest to date. His first destination was in Padrón (La Coruña), to later serve as owner in the records of Villafranca del Bierzo (León), Berga (Barcelona), Elche (Alicante) and, finally, in Santa Pola (Alicante), remaining, From then on, he was on forced leave of absence as an official for almost his entire political period.

At the same age that he passed the competitive examinations, Rajoy was injured in the face as a result of a traffic accident on his way to Villafranca del Bierzo. Since then, he always wears a beard to hide the scars from these injuries.

He did compulsory military service, in which he was mainly in charge of cleaning the stairs of the Captaincy General of Valencia, graduating at the end of 1980.

Political career

Galicia (1981-1990)

From the Spanish National Union (UNE), and later a member of Alianza Popular (AP), he was elected deputy in the first Galician regional elections, held on October 20, 1981.

In 1982 he was appointed General Director of Institutional Relations of the Junta de Galicia. In the municipal elections of May 8, 1983, he was elected councilor of the Pontevedra City Council. At the party's extraordinary congress in May 1988, he was appointed General Secretary of AP in Galicia. In 1983 and 1984, Rajoy published articles in the Faro de Vigo in which he defended inequality as something inherent to the human being, in separate comments on books by Luis Moure Mariño and Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora, < i>Human inequality and Egalitarian envy respectively.

On June 11, 1983, he was appointed president of the Provincial Council of Pontevedra, a position he would hold until December 1986. In the general elections of June 22, 1986, he obtained a seat in the Congress of Deputies as head from the list for Pontevedra, although he resigned in November to be vice-president of the Junta de Galicia after the resignation of José Luis Barreiro and the rest of the directors, he held this position until the end of September 1987.

In January 1989, the AP was refounded into a single party, which was renamed the Popular Party (PP), with Manuel Fraga Iribarne as president; Rajoy is appointed a member of the National Executive Committee of the Popular Party, renews his deputy act for Pontevedra and chairs the Parliamentary Control Commission of RTVE.

On September 4, 1989, José María Aznar —until then president of the Junta de Castilla y León— was chosen as a candidate for the general elections, on the proposal of Fraga himself, and in April 1990, he became president of the Popular Party and Rajoy was elected a member of the National Executive and deputy general secretary of the PP. In the elections of June 6, 1993, the Popular Party consolidated itself as the first opposition party and Rajoy renewed his deputy act for Pontevedra.

Minister of the Government of Spain (1996-2003)

On March 3, 1996, the Popular Party won the elections with 9,716,006 votes, with Aznar being proclaimed Prime Minister with the support of the PNV, CiU and the Canary Islands Coalition and Rajoy renewed his seat in Congress for the third time, after having directed that successful electoral campaign. Rajoy held the leadership of several ministries of the Government of Spain during this period.

On May 5, 1996, he was appointed Minister of Public Administration, approving the Law on the Organization and Functioning of the General State Administration, LOFAGE (Law 6/1997, of April 14).

In January 1999, Rajoy left his position to Ángel Acebes and replaced Esperanza Aguirre, who had received strong criticism for her management,^{[by whom?]} and was appointed minister of Education and Culture and approving new Vocational Training study plans. That month he was re-elected Deputy Secretary General of the party at its XIII Congress.

Rajoy at a press conference at the Moncloa Palace (January 2003)

Rajoy was once again in charge of directing the electoral campaign for the 2000 general elections in which the Popular Party obtained an absolute majority against Joaquín Almunia's PSOE, obtaining 10,321,178 votes, its highest number of votes to date after which Rajoy was appointed First Vice President and Minister of the Presidency of the Government, replacing Francisco Álvarez-Cascos.

In February 2001, after the "truce-trap" by ETA in 1999, he ceased to be Minister of the Presidency to succeed Jaime Mayor Oreja in the Interior who was running as a candidate for lehendakari in the elections to the Basque Country. As head of this ministry, Rajoy achieved numerous successes in the fight against the terrorist organization ETA.

The Government approved the Association Law project (June 2001), the Regulations that developed the Immigration Law (July 2001) and the draft Law for the Prevention of Improper Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages (May 2002) were approved.).

In January 2002, he was re-elected Deputy Secretary General of the party at the XIV Congress and in July Rajoy stepped down as Interior Minister, being replaced by Acebes, to assume the posts of Government Spokesperson and, once again, that of the Ministry of the Presidency.

As spokesman, he had to face the two biggest controversies of Aznar's second government: the ecological disaster caused by the Prestige oil spill and Aznar's support for US President George W. Bush during the war and invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Rise to the leadership of the Popular Party and general elections of 2004

At the XIV Congress of the Popular Party held in Madrid between January 25 and 27, 2002, the President of the Government and of the party José María Aznar kept his word of not being more than eight years in charge of the presidency of the country and also thus became the first Spanish ruler in office who voluntarily resigned to continue in power despite pressure from within his party to continue.

Rajoy salundo next to Joaquín Ramírez—president of the PP of Malaga—, Teófila Martínez—alcaldesa de Cádiz— and Celia Villalobos—exalcaldesa de Málaga—in an electoral rally.

On August 31, 2003, Aznar proposed him as his successor and expressed it with this phrase: "Mariano, it's your turn." In November 2012, Aznar revealed that he had offered his succession to Rodrigo Rato, but Rato rejected it up to two times. On September 3, he was elected by the National Board of Directors of the Popular Party, the new secretary of the formation and candidate for the presidency of the Government.

On March 14, 2004, the ninth general elections would take place since the democratic restoration and in which the fourth replacement in the presidency of the Government would take place. During the electoral campaign, the PP used as its main trump card the economic achievements achieved during the eight years of Aznar's government (GDP growth, budget balance, job creation and drop in unemployment). His electoral slogan was "Together we are going to more".

Three days before the appointment with the polls, on Thursday, March 11, there was a series of simultaneous terrorist attacks on four commuter trains in Madrid, which were at the Atocha, Santa Eugenia and El Pozo stations, the which took the lives of 191 people and injured more than 1,500. This massacre, the worst attack in the history of Spain and Europe (in times of peace), was immediately attributed to ETA. that terrorist tragedy that had just been committed, the two main candidates for the presidency of the Government (Rajoy and Zapatero) together with the other political parties announced the suspension of electoral acts and the end of the electoral campaign.

On the 12th, at seven in the evening, the massive marches called by the government and presided over with the motto: «With the victims, with the Constitution, for the defeat of terrorism» began throughout Spain. For the first time in the history of Spain, members of the royal family were found in the capital that concentrated the most citizens —two and a half million— in Madrid: the Prince of Asturias, Felipe de Borbón and his two sisters, Las infantas Elena and Christina. Together with them was the President of the Government, José María Aznar and the two candidates for the Presidency of the Government, for the two big parties: Rajoy for the Popular Party and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for the PSOE.

Rajoy's comparison accompanied by Aznar and Rodrigo Rato on the election night in which his party lost the elections (14 March 2004).

The following day, the newspaper El Mundo published an interview with Rajoy in which he stated that "he had the moral conviction that ETA was responsible for the attacks in Madrid". that day of electoral reflection, dozens of demonstrators gathered before the headquarters of the Popular Party demanding that the nation's government clarify who had committed the terrorist massacre. The demonstrations spread in the afternoon and at night, not only at the main headquarters on Calle Génova in Madrid (which was the most crowded), but also in other cities. Due to these concentrations, Rajoy appeared on television to ask to stop some "illegal demonstrations", which he described as "anti-democratic events". About half an hour later, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba appeared, stating that "Spanish citizens deserve a government that does not lie to them, a government that always tells the truth." truth".

The next day, the Spanish people turned to the polls with their appointment. Participation reached almost 78% of the census. The PSOE won 164 seats (42.64%) and more than ten million votes and the PP went from an absolute majority to the opposition with 148 seats (37.64%). On that election day, Rajoy snapped at Aznar the following sentence: "You and your bloody war!"

On October 7, 2004, Rajoy stated in a forum of the newspaper El Mundo that he "did not believe that those detained for 11-M organized the attacks".

Leader of the opposition (2004-2011)

Mariano Rajoy at a European People's Party Congress in 2006.

On October 2, 2004, at the XV Congress of the Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy was elected president of the formation by 98.37% of the votes of the delegates.

In his first stage as leader of the opposition (2004-2008), he meant a return to tension on the political level. Two were the themes that were used in depth to highlight government action: the first was anti-terrorism policy and the peace process in the Basque Country and the second was the reform of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia.

On December 1, 2005, he suffered a helicopter crash in the Móstoles bullring, together with the president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, from which he escaped practically unharmed. He only suffered a fracture in one finger and a dislocation in another.

Less than a month later, on the 11th, popular deputy Vicente Martínez-Pujalte became the first deputy expelled from the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies since 1976.^{[citation required ]}

On June 7, Rajoy announced that the Popular Party "severed all relations with the socialist executive" (this was the first time in a democracy) because the Zapatero government agreed to talk with Batasuna.

On March 5, 2007, Rajoy called for a demonstration on the 10th under the slogan «Spain for freedom; no more transfers to ETA" as a rejection of the concession by the Zapatero government of the second degree of prison to ETA member José Ignacio de Juana Chaos (author of 25 murders). Five days later, the largest demonstration ever called by the ETA was held in Madrid. a single political party in Spain.

Regarding same-sex marriage, the Popular Party filed an appeal before the Constitutional Court, which was resolved on November 6, 2012, seven years after its processing, with 8 votes in favor of same-sex marriage and 3 against.

In October 2007, Rajoy was the center of a controversy after making a reflection that minimized the long-term forecast of the effects of climate change, originated as a result of a conversation with his cousin. Numerous political representatives and organizations Ecologists were quick to show a strong rejection of these opinions, which were rectified by Rajoy himself a few days later.

2008 General Election

Rajoy next to his wife Elvira Fernández on the balcony of the PP headquarters on Genoa Street during the election night of March 9, 2008.

Rajoy along with Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy, on June 18, 2009.

On March 9, 2008, the tenth general elections were held since the reinstatement of democracy in Spain. In them the PSOE won again —with Rodríguez Zapatero as a candidate for presidential re-election— with 169 seats that for the first time in its history exceeded 11 million votes. The Popular Party achieved more than 40% of the votes and 154 deputies —the best result ever obtained by a party that would be in opposition. This fact was achieved because in its main fiefdom: the Community of Madrid achieved close to 49.2% of the vote —18 deputies and 100,000 votes plus respect for the electoral date four years ago— Despite not having achieved victory to reach Moncloa, the PP managed to be the force with the most votes in the Senate with 101 senators of the 208 that make it up. Between the two most important political forces in Spain they added 322 of the 350 deputies that made up the Congress of Deputies. It meant the greatest apogee of bipartisanship.

Two days later, on Tuesday the 11th, Rajoy announced at the Popular Party headquarters that he would continue to lead the party and that he would run for re-election as president of the formation and with it as a potential candidate for the next general elections that would foreseeably be

Zapatero and Mariano Rajoy after a meeting between the two held on May 5, 2010 at the Palace of the Moncloa

Rajoy and Esperanza Aguirre entered into an open war for the presidency of the party. This broke out when Aguirre stated on April 8 "that he would fight for the PP to present itself as an open and liberal option." Eleven days later, Rajoy replied saying: "if someone wants to go to the liberal or conservative party, let him go." The then first vice president of the Community of Madrid, Ignacio González, responded to this phrase: “What would become of the PP if liberals and conservatives left?” Aguirre, due to the lack of sufficient support, postponed her claims.

On May 21, after a meeting with Rajoy, María San Gil left the presidency and the group of the PP of the Basque Country. Rajoy responded with an attitude of total indifference towards the action of San Gil (which a week before had made public its distrust of him).

The next day, José Antonio Ortega Lara left the party of which he had been a member since 1987, who suffered the longest kidnapping part of the terrorist organization ETA —532 days— in subhuman living conditions due to Rajoy's conduct with María San Gil and in solidarity with her. On the 23rd, Rajoy stated "that he wanted a party that has twelve or thirteen million votes, and not two million votes", in a clear evasion to the presenter of the COPE network, Federico Jiménez Losantos, increasingly critical of him.

Rajoy along with the one who would be Prime Minister of Portugal, Pedro Passos Coelho

On May 26, in an article published in El Mundo, Gabriel Elorriaga (communications director of the PP and coordinator of Rajoy's electoral campaign) called for "a renewed, solid and inclusive leadership and That is something that, although it weighs on me, Mariano Rajoy is not in a position to offer ».

In those days, with the majority of the support of the regional barons for Rajoy, ex-minister Juan Costa began to make a name for himself as a possible alternative candidate. Costa recriminated Rajoy in the National Executive Committee that there is a crisis "of illusion" among the bases, but on June 9, the uncertainty ended, confirming that he would not appear. Of course, his resignation was accompanied by a request: more internal democracy and a new leader in the PP. Most of his colleagues remained silent, except for Manuel Fraga, who did not hesitate to affirm that Costa did not show up because he "knew that he was losing."

On June 19, it was announced that the president of the PP in Castilla-La Mancha and deputy, María Dolores de Cospedal would be the party's general secretary, replacing Ángel Acebes. The deputy secretaries would be Ana Mato (Organization), Esteban González Pons (Communication and Spokesperson) and Javier Arenas (Territorial). His new team included the mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón; Vice Mayor Manuel Cobo; Councilor Ana Botella; the president of the Assembly, Elvira Rodríguez, and the councilors Alfredo Prada, Lucía Figar, Manuel Lamela and Juan José Güemes. In the leadership of the PP, the names that occupied the previous management team were maintained, to which Federico Trillo joined, replacing Ignacio Astarloa. He was left out the most critical voice; Hope Aguirre.

Rajoy with Boiko Borísov, future prime minister of Bulgaria, in Madrid in February 2008.

The following day and until June 22, the XVI Congress of the Popular Party was held in Valencia, it had not been held outside Madrid for 18 years when José María Aznar was elected president of the party in Seville. It should be noted that The distance between Aznar and Rajoy was already beginning to be visible —which would end with the former Prime Minister abandoning the honorary presidency of the Popular Party in 2016— due to details such as greeting him coldly, or his speech in Congress in which he strongly supported « responsible" to Rajoy, to later tell him that María San Gil and José Antonio Ortega Lara "must continue to be part" of the PP.

Rajoy was re-elected president of the Popular Party with the support of 78.8% of the accredited delegates, obtaining the least support since the party was refounded in 1990.

In October, he was involved in two controversies. On the 11th, this sentence of Rajoy's was made public —since he had forgotten to turn off his microphone: «This Sunday I have the pain in the ass of the parade (on the day of the National Holiday)... in short, an exciting plan». Which was paradoxical since the previous year he published a video calling on all Spaniards to celebrate the national holiday. Four days later, the television channel La Sexta broadcast an image of Rajoy when the presenter pronounced the word "clown". It should be noted that on June 19, the GEO arrested a Rajoy cousin for being part of a gang that had kidnapped a businessman from Cádiz.

The following year, on February 6, public opinion became aware of the so-called Gürtel case; a corruption plot that affected the Popular Party. Judge Baltasar Garzón ordered the arrest of five people, including Francisco Correa.

The Foreign Minister of Peru, Rafael Roncagliolo, in a meeting with Mariano Rajoy.

In addition, in that year 2009 there were three electoral calls in the State: The only national one was the elections to the European Parliament on June 7, in which the wear and tear that the Zapatero government was beginning to suffer due to the economic crisis and the more than three and a half million unemployed. In this appointment with the polls, the Popular Party with Jaime Mayor Oreja as head of the list defeated the PSOE by more than half a million votes despite only surpassing the Socialists by two seats —23 to 21—. By autonomous communities, the PP achieved victory in 11 of them, in addition to Ceuta and Melilla. On March 1 were the regional elections in Galicia and the Basque Country. In Galicia, the Popular Party headed by Alberto Núñez Feijóo would return to govern the Junta four years later, defeating the bipartite bloc made up of the PSdG and the BNG by an absolute majority. In the Basque Country, the PNV won again, but the sum of the constitutionalist parties: PSE, PP and UPyD (which for the first time would occupy a seat in the Parliament of Vitoria) gave the absolute majority (38 deputies) in the Basque Chamber. On March 30, an agreement between the PSE and the PP was made public, entitled "Bases for democratic change at the service of Basque society" in which the popular supporters of the investiture of the socialist Patxi López as the first Lehendakari no nationalist in 30 years, who was sworn in on May 5.

In the twilight of 2009, in a survey published by the CIS, he left a piece of highly relevant information: Rajoy generated little or no trust among 80.2% of those surveyed.

On May 12, 2010, the President of the Government, Rodríguez Zapatero

2011 General Election

Rajoy with Cristina Cifuentes and the president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre on November 5.

Rajoy together with the president of the Valencian Community, Alberto Fabra

Rajoy and José María Aznar greet themselves at the closing ceremony of the electoral campaign (18 November).

On May 22, 2011, municipal elections were held throughout the state and regional elections in 13 autonomous communities. In them, the PSOE suffered the worst results since the reinstatement of democracy, quite the opposite of the Popular Party, which obtained the best result in its history, which resulted in a Spain practically governed by the center-right party. The PP reinforced its absolute majority in the Community of Madrid —the candidate and at that time president of the Community, Esperanza Aguirre won 72 seats and more than 50% of the votes—, the Valencian Community, the Region of Murcia, La Rioja, Ceuta, Melilla and Castilla y León and came to power in Cantabria, the Balearic Islands and Aragon. It should be noted that for the first time in its history, the PP would govern in two "socialist strongholds": Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura. The socialist debacle was also repeated in the municipal ones. In the eight provincial capitals of Andalusia, the Community that was nicknamed the "socialist barn", managed to defeat the popular candidacies, mention that the PP managed to win for the first time in the democratic stage in Córdoba —"communist fiefdom"— and he returned to power twelve years later, with Juan Ignacio Zoido as mayor, in Seville.

On July 29, the President of the Government, Rodríguez Zapatero, appeared at a press conference after the last Council of Ministers of the semester and announced the call for early general elections for November 20 of the same year, it was the seventh time that an electoral advance took place since the first appointment of the Spanish people with the polls in 1977.

On August 23, Prime Minister Rodríguez Zapatero unexpectedly announced a constitutional reform to include limits on public spending. On September 2, only the PSOE and the PP voted in favor of the reform of article 135.

On October 20, 2011, one month before the elections were to be held, one of the most anticipated events since the establishment of democracy in Spain took place; the terrorist group ETA announced "the definitive cessation of the armed struggle".

On November 7, a single televised debate was held between the two candidates from the two largest political forces in the country: Rajoy for the PP and Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba for the PSOE.

In the anticipated general elections of November 20, 2011 for the Parliament of the X Legislature, the Popular Party was victorious by receiving more than 10.7 million votes (44.62%) and achieving an absolute majority of 186 seats. With this result, the number of seats and votes exceeded the absolute majority of the Popular Party in the 2000 elections, with Aznar as candidate.

President of the Government (2011-2018)

First government (2011-2015)

Economic crisis and social unrest (2012-2013)

Rajoy poses to the media outside of the Moncloa Palace together with the 13 ministers of his government in December 2011.

On December 20, 2011, Mariano Rajoy was sworn in as President of the Government and on the 21st he was sworn in before the King. Luis de Guindos and Cristóbal Montoro, at the helm of the Ministries of Economy and Competitiveness and Finance and Public Administration, respectively, agreed on a sharp reduction in public spending to control the budget deficit, which exceeded 8% of GDP, above the agreed limit by Rodríguez Zapatero with the European Commission— and an increase in personal income tax and IBI —breaking Rajoy's electoral promise not to raise the tax burden—, thus continuing with the adjustment policies of the previous government and with the "structural reforms", the most important of which was the labor reform designed by the Minister of Employment Fátima Báñez and approved by the government in February 2012. The labor reform was rejected by the unions who called a general strike for March 29, 2012, which was followed seven months later by the 2012 European general strike. On September 25, 2012, a large demonstration called Surround the Congress (25S) took place to try to in a symbolic way surround the Congress of Deputies in Madrid. In the end, it ended in a pitched battle with 64 injured and 35 detainees. The images of the police action (with several charges of great brutality) went around the world.

To reduce the deficit, the government not only cut public spending —the salaries of civil servants continued to be frozen, as well as oppositions, so that retirements would not be covered; the beneficiaries of the Dependency Law were cut; the minimum interprofessional salary was not increased; subsidies to political parties, unions and employers were reduced; etc.—but also agreed to tax increases contrary to what he had promised in the electoral campaign. Regarding pensions, he decreed a minimum increase of 1%, to differentiate himself from the freeze decided by the Zapatero government in May 2010.

Rajoy with Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France, on the steps of the Moncloa. January 2012.

Rajoy with the chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, in the Moncloa. September 2012.

The adjustment policies had a negative effect on economic activity, causing the second recession of the economic crisis that lasted longer than the first in 2009, since it lasted from the last quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2013, which translated into an increase in unemployment of one million people since the PP began to govern —from 5,273,600 unemployed in December 2011, 22.85% of the active population, to a historical record of 6,202 700 unemployed in March 2013, placing the unemployment rate at 27.1% and the youth unemployment rate at 57.22%.

In April 2012, the government announced an additional cut in education and health spending of 10,000 million euros, which raised protests from the affected sectors. On June 26, Health established the health co-payment, which implied that, with the exception of specific cases, all citizens would have to pay a percentage of the medicines they bought. It should be noted that for the first time retirees would have to pay for medicines, 10% of the price of the product. On May 22, 2012, the first general educational strike in the history of Spain took place. Just three days later, On May 25, it became known that Bankia, nationalized two weeks earlier, would need an injection of 19,000 million euros of public money to be reorganized, highlighting the fragility of the Spanish banking system. On June 9, the Minister of Economy Luis de Guindos announced that Spain was going to request a financial rescue from the European Union for a maximum value of 100,000 million euros to clean up the savings banks in trouble, although he refused to use the term "rescue" and preferred the term "rescue". credit under very favorable conditions". President Mariano Rajoy did the same in his speech the following day when he used the term "credit line".

In spite of everything, the harsh adjustment policies and "structural reforms" applied by the government were not able to stop the escalation of the risk premium, which in July 2012 exceeded 600 basis points with respect to the German bond, a level which made it practically impossible to finance the Spanish debt in the markets, so it seemed inevitable that the government would request a "European bailout" as Greece, Ireland and Portugal had already done. On July 11, President Rajoy said in Congress of the Deputies:

The Spaniards have reached a point where we cannot choose to stay as we are or make sacrifices. We don't have that freedom. The circumstances are not so generous. The only option that reality allows us is to accept sacrifices and give up something; or reject sacrifices and give up everything.

Rajoy in a handshake with the president of Peru, Ollanta Humala, at the entrance to the Moncloa. January 2012.

These words were spoken one day after the Eurogroup agreed on the conditions for the rescue of the Spanish banking system and the Ecofin approved making the deficit targets for 2012 more flexible, demanding in exchange that the Spanish government make further adjustments immediately To achieve this objective, Rajoy presented in the Congress of Deputies the largest adjustment in the history of democracy: 65,000 million euros in two years. To achieve this objective, he announced the rise in VAT, having promised in the electoral campaign that this measure would not be implemented and criticized the previous government's doing so: the suppression of the extra Christmas pay for civil servants; the 10% reduction in the unemployment benefit from the sixth month of receipt; the elimination of the deduction for housing in the IRPF; the increase in environmental taxes, among other measures.

However, on July 26, 2012, with the entire eurozone in danger of collapse—Italy's risk premium had also skyrocketed, and Spain and Italy were "too big to fail" ( too big to fail)— intervened the president of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi to ensure that the ECB was going to do everything in its power to support the euro, finally behaving as lender of last resort —the words of Draghi were: «the ECB will do everything necessary to support the euro. And believe me, that will be enough. Immediately, the market pressure on the debt relaxed and the Spanish and Italian risk premiums began to fall, receding the threat of a bailout.

On October 21, 2012, early regional elections were held in the Basque Country and Galicia. In Euskadi, Iñigo Urkullu's PNV won without reaching an absolute majority. EH Bildu was the second force with the most votes, obtaining 21 seats. In Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijoo (PP) was re-elected president of the Junta de Galicia by an absolute majority.

Sovereignty process in Catalonia and political crisis (2013-2014)

Rajoy with the president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff.

Rajoy with the Prime Minister of Latvia, Valdis Dombrovskis, in May 2013.

Along with the economic crisis, the other big problem that the government of Mariano Rajoy had to face was the «sovereignty challenge» of Catalonia. The growth of the Catalan independence movement after the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the Statute of autonomy of Catalonia in 2006, which led to a large demonstration of rejection held in Barcelona on July 9, 2010 under the slogan We are born, we decide, was clearly evident in the large demonstration held in Barcelona on September 11, 2012, the Catalonia Day, with the motto Catalunya, nou estat d'Europa and organized by the self-styled National Assembly of Catalonia. Two weeks later, the Parliament of Catalonia approved a resolution in which it urged the Government to hold a "consultation" in which "the people of Catalonia can freely and democratically determine their collective future." Subsequently, the president of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, brought forward the elections to the parliament of Catalonia scheduled for 2014 by two years, and these were held on November 25. Although the CiU lost some deputies, both the Republican Left and the Initiative for Catalonia increased their parliamentary representation, and the CUP also entered Parliament with three deputies, thus establishing a "sovereignty" majority in the Parliament of Catalonia. Thus, on January 23, 2013, Parliament approved the "Declaration of Sovereignty and the right to decide of the People of Catalonia" whose first article was annulled by the Constitutional Court the following year. On September 11, 2013, a large human chain linked the territory of Catalonia from north to south in what was called the "Catalan Way to Independence" and three months later the parties defending the "consultation" agreed on the question and the date of the same, set for November 9, 2014. In January 2014 the Parliament of Catalonia approved a motion requesting the Congress of Deputies to cede jurisdiction to hold the referendum, but on April 8 the petition was rejected by the plenary by an overwhelming majority.

On October 3, Rajoy became the first Western president to visit the Japanese city of Fukushima after suffering the tragic accident at its nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011.

On October 21, 2013, a ruling by the Strasbourg Court annulled the Parot doctrine. The following day, ETA member Inés del Río (convicted of 25 murders) was released. Five weeks later they were released. 56 ETA members released from prison.

Rajoy (below left) during the meeting of European G20 leaders in Brisbane, Australia, chaired by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Regarding the political crisis, the coming to power of the Popular Party did not improve citizens' perception of politics. In November 2012, the CIS barometer indicated that the percentage of people fairly or very satisfied with the functioning of democracy in Spain was less than 30% when it was ten years earlier, when the Popular Party also governed —but in a period of strong economic growth. — was close to 60%. Likewise, many of the political institutions suffered a sharp drop in the assessment of public opinion, such as political parties, the Government, the Congress of Deputies, unions and business organizations, all of them below the grade of 3 (on a scale from 0 to 10), according to the CIS barometer of 2013, and from which the monarchy was not spared, valued at 3.68. On November 6, 2014, a CIS survey was published in which Rajoy pulverized Rodríguez Zapatero's unpopularity record by achieving a 2.31 average grade.

The political crisis was even more clearly evident in the elections to the European Parliament held on May 25, 2014, in which, for the first time since the recovery of democracy, the two majority parties, PP and PSOE, did not they exceeded 50% of the votes cast —the PP went from 24 to 16 seats and the PSOE, from 23 to 14—, while the minority IU, UPyD and Cs grew and a new party called Podemos broke in, which won five deputies. The following day, the general secretary of the PSOE Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba announced the call for an extraordinary party congress to be held in July and in which he would not stand for re-election. In the primaries Pedro Sánchez would be elected as the new general secretary.

Felipe de Borbón swears the Spanish Constitution before the General Courts to be proclaimed king of Spain (19 June 2014).

On Monday, June 2, 2014, King Juan Carlos I announced his abdication, after almost thirty-nine years of reign. The decision had been made five months earlier, on January 5, his birthday, and he had communicated it to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on March 31. That same day the king made public his decision to abdicate, there were rallies in several cities asking for the calling of a referendum to decide the form of government. This demand reappeared in the debate that was held in the Congress of Deputies on June 11 to approve the Organic Law of Abdication. It was presented and supported by the formations that voted against said law: the 19 seats that added Izquierda Unida-Izquierda Plural, Geroa Bai, Compromís, Nueva Canarias, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and BNG. The law was finally approved by an overwhelming majority: 299 deputies from the PP, PSOE, UPyD, Foro Asturias and Unión del Pueblo Navarro On June 18, King Juan Carlos signed the law, which constituted the last official act of the reign of he. The next day, Felipe VI was proclaimed King of Spain by the Cortes Generales after having sworn the Spanish Constitution of 1978.

At the end of July, two weeks after the Catalan Parliament's presentation had approved the draft Consultation Law, which was intended to protect the sovereign referendum scheduled for November 9, Mariano Rajoy and Artur Mas met at the Moncloa, without reaching any agreement.

Rajoy along with Felipe de Borbón, President of Generality Artur Mas and Minister of Promotion, Ana Pastor on the inaugural journey of the AVE line Barcelona-Figueres.

On September 11, a large demonstration took place in Barcelona in favor of holding the "consulta" on November 9, but the government maintained its position of opposing it because it was contrary to the Constitution and the laws. For his part, the new PSOE Secretary General Pedro Sánchez declared: "We cannot continue like this, Rajoy and More must sit".

Despite everything, the Catalan parliament continued with the processing of the consultation law and approved it on September 19, the day after the celebration of the Referendum for the independence of Scotland in 2014, which raised enormous expectations in Catalonia. President Mas signed it, as well as the decree calling for the 9N consultation on September 27, the day after the appearance of the former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia Jordi Pujol before a commission of the Parliament of Catalonia to explain the matter of the money deposited in a bank in Andorra for 34 years and that had not been declared to the Treasury, but the government reacted immediately and filed an appeal before the Constitutional Court which admitted it for processing on September 29 The law and the decree were temporarily suspended.

The following day, the Generalitat suspended the institutional campaign of 9N, but only two days later, President Artur Mas signed the decree appointing the members of the Control Commission of the consultation suspended by the Constitutional Court, which was also immediately appealed by the government, while the political forces that supported the "consultation" met with President Mas to agree to go ahead despite the suspension of the Constitutional Court.

On October 13, President Mas recognized that the 9N consultation could not be held due to a lack of legal guarantees, but the next day he announced that a citizen participation process would be held on 9-N, under the Law of consultations in Catalonia that had not been suspended by the Constitutional Court. Finally, on November 9, the participatory process on the political future of Catalonia in 2014 was held without any incidents.

Rajoy with the lendakari of the Basque Country, Patxi López, at the entrance of the Moncloa Palace. 27 January 2012.

A week and a half later, the State Attorney General's Office filed a complaint against Artur Mas, and against Vice President Joana Ortega and Education Minister Irene Rigau, for an alleged crime of disobedience, which was admitted for processing on December 22 by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia.

On January 30, 2013, the newspaper El País published a series of documents that allegedly implicated Rajoy in a plot of political corruption. According to this newspaper, both Rajoy and others party officials received from the former treasurers of the Popular Party Álvaro Lapuerta and Luis Bárcenas, a series of periodic payments originating from an alleged illegal financing of the party, which extended between the years 1990 and 2008. The alleged annotations of the former treasurers pointed to the delivery of 25,200 euros per year to Rajoy during eleven years of records. In view of the revelations in the newspaper El País, both Rajoy and the Popular Party denied the existence of parallel accounting, stating that all payments from the party adhered to the law.

In July, new things were discovered about the aforementioned Bárcenas Case. On the 7th of that month, El Mundo interviewed Bárcenas, who stated that in the last twenty years the Popular Party had been illegally financed. Two days later, the same newspaper published some original papers of Bárcenas, which reflected the payment of bonuses to Rajoy in 1997, 1998 and 1999 when he was a minister in the Aznar government. These payments violated the Law of Incompatibilities of 1995.

On August 1, Rajoy accepted his mistake in "trusting" in Bárcenas but said that he was not planning to resign or call elections. In that appearance in the Senate, Rajoy stated that Bárcenas was no longer part of the PP when he became president of the Government, but on the 11th of that same month, El Mundo published a list issued by the party for the former treasurer dated May 2012.

On March 23, 2015, Judge Pablo Ruz concluded the investigation into the Bárcenas papers and considered it proven that the Popular Party had been illegally financed between 1990 and 2008.

Economic recovery and change in the party system (2014-2015)

Hand pressing between Rajoy and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa at the entrance of the Moncloa Palace.

Throughout 2014 it was confirmed that the Spanish economy had emerged from the recession that began at the end of 2011. In April the Bank of Spain estimated that GDP had grown by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2014, the highest rise in the last six years. Growth that continued in the following months stimulated by the measures agreed at the beginning of June by the European Central Bank to reactivate the European economy, weaken the euro against other currencies and to face the risk of deflation, which obtained an immediate favorable response from the markets —the Spanish risk premium fell to all-time lows, standing at 129 basis points. Thus, at the end of July, the Bank of Spain announced that the GDP had grown by 0.5% in the second quarter, with which there were four consecutive quarters of growth, which had not happened since the beginning of the crisis. These data were reflected in the EPA, which registered a decrease in unemployment in it II Quarter, although the unemployment rate was still 24.5%. At the beginning of September, the ECB took more measures to avoid the risk of deflation in the euro area, which were again favorably received by the markets —the risk premium of the Spanish debt fell to 111.4 basis points, standing below the level it had when the euro crisis began in 2010.

The consolidation of the economic recovery led Mariano Rajoy to declare on December 11 that "in many aspects, the crisis is history." A great controversy arose and Rajoy had to rectify a few days later in the act of signing the first social pact of the legislature, by which 426 euros were granted to the long-term unemployed who had been left without unemployment coverage. In the presentation of the agreement, the president admitted that "the recovery has not reached everyone, nor to all equally".

At the end of 2014, the risk premium for Spanish debt stood at 106 basis points and, for the first time since 2007, there was an increase in the number of Social Security affiliates (417,574 more people). According to the Active Population Survey of the IV Quarter, the number of unemployed on December 31 amounted to 5,457,700, 477,900 people less than a year ago, which placed the rate of passage at 23.7%, still above the 22.85% that was the unemployment rate that the government found when it came to power in December 2011. The good progress of the economy was confirmed during the first quarter of 2015 —at the end of March the Bank of Spain advanced that the Spanish economy had grown by 0.8% from January to March. At the end of March the government announced that the forecasts of the public deficit in 2014 had been fulfilled, and that it had been reduced to 5.72 % of GDP, standing below 5.8%, the maximum limit agreed with the European Commission.

Despite these data, the Spanish public debt exceeded 100% of GDP (one trillion euros) for the first time in its history.

Rajoy with the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Susana Díaz, at the entrance of the Palacio de la Moncloa

After 9-N the Catalan “sovereignty challenge” continued. On November 25, 2014, four days after the prosecution had filed a complaint against him for holding the participatory process, Mas presented his plan to achieve the independence of Catalonia in 18 months. The plan was answered by the Popular Party on December 13 through the "Declaration of La Granja" in which he opposed the reform of the Constitution because "the sovereignty and unity of Spain" are not negotiable.

On January 14, 2015, the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia announced in a press conference that the regional elections would be brought forward on September 27, 2015 and that they would have a plebiscite on the independence of Catalonia. Despite the fact that on February 25 the Constitutional Court unanimously confirmed the unconstitutionality of the 9-N consultation, a month later the Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, and the Catalan National Assembly, Òmnium Cultural and the Associació de Municipalis per la Independència, agreed on the “unitary road map of the Catalan pro-sovereignty process” which included a unilateral declaration of independence within 18 months, if the pro-sovereignty parties won the “plebiscite” elections » scheduled for September 27 —“The programs of the sovereignist candidacies must make it clear, as a first and outstanding point, that voting for them supposes a favorable pronouncement to the independence of Catalonia", they affirmed.

Rajoy, during an official visit to Andorra, signing several agreements with Antoni Martí, the president of the Government of Andorra.

On the other hand, the result of the Andalusian elections of March 22 confirmed what the polls announced: the recomposition of the party system due to the irruption of two new formations, Podemos and Ciudadanos, which obtained in the Andalusian elections 15 and 9 seats, respectively. The worst unemployed were the PP, which lost 17 of its 50 deputies, and the United Left, which went from twelve to five deputies —UPyD did not get any deputies—, while the PSOE maintained its 47 seats and recovered first place among the Andalusian political forces. with Susana Díaz at the head of the Board, although she remained 8 deputies from the absolute majority.

Corruption scandals also continued. On October 31, 2014, the former counselor of the Community of Madrid, Francisco Granados, was imprisoned for his involvement in the Punic Case. On November 26, Ana Mato, Minister of Health, Social Services and Equality, resigned after being summoned to testify by Judge Pablo Ruz for having allegedly been a beneficiary of her ex-husband's illegal business with the Gürtel plot. On December 16 the judge charged the former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia Jordi Pujol, his wife Marta Ferrusola and three of their children for money laundering and tax crime for having hidden the family fortune in Andorra. On December 22, King Cristina de Borbón's sister was accused of tax crime in the order to open the oral trial of the case in which her husband was implicated. That same day Sonia Castedo (PP), accused for two years of urban corruption, resigned from her position as mayoress of Alicante. On February 10, the arrest of 90 people was ordered for the fraud in training courses in Andalusia, among which was the former socialist mayor of Jerez de la Frontera. On April 16, the former vice president of the government Rodrigo Rato was arrested at his home in Madrid by agents of the Customs Surveillance Service, accused of the uprising of assets, money laundering and tax fraud. On June 15, Rafael Blasco, the former counselor of the Generalitat Valenciana, was sent to prison to serve a sentence of six and a half years in prison for the Case of Cooperation. Ten days later the Supreme Court accused the former presidents of the Junta de Andalucía, the socialists Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán, for the case of the ERE.

Rajoy together with the candidates of the Popular Party to the Community of Madrid, Cristina Cifuentes and the mayor of the capital, Esperanza Aguirre riding bicycles in the Madrid Rio park.

On May 24, 2015, the municipal and regional elections were held, in which the Popular Party continued to be the political force with the most votes but experienced a strong setback (it lost two and a half million votes and all the absolute majorities it had obtained in the municipal and regional elections of 2011). The PSOE also lost votes compared to 2011 (675,000) although it reduced its distance with respect to the PP, adding between the two 52% of the votes (27% the PP, 25% the PSOE), thus confirming the change of the party system started in the 2014 European elections and in the 2015 Andalusian elections (in 2011 PP and PSOE had obtained 65% of the votes). For their part, the emerging Ciudadanos and Podemos parties entered practically all the regional parliaments, becoming decisive in forming governments —as well as some left-wing nationalist political forces such as Compromís and Més per Mallorca. In the big cities, the candidacies of "popular unity" broke out, such as Ahora Madrid, Barcelona en Comú or Marea Atlántica de La Coruña, whose head of the list (such as Manuela Carmena in Madrid or Ada Colau in Barcelona) have occupied the mayors of both cities with the support of other political formations, including the PSOE, as in many other cities. The big losers were the United Left, which only obtained representation in four autonomous parliaments (Asturias, Aragón, Castilla y León and Navarra) although it maintained its results at the municipal level (it obtained 1,054,662 votes and 2,216 councilors compared to 1,424,000 votes and 2,230 councilors in 2011), and UPyD, converted into an extra-parliamentary party.

Two days after the elections, three regional presidents of the autonomous communities where the PP could not govern again, not even with the support of Ciudadanos, announced that they would not run for re-election. They were Alberto Fabra from the Valencian Community, José Ramón Bauzá from the Balearic Islands and Luisa Fernanda Rudi from Aragón. These announcements were preceded by statements by Juan Vicente Herrera, acting president of Castilla y León who could revalidate his mandate if he obtained the support of Ciudadanos, in which he asked whether the president of the government Mariano Rajoy should resign from running for the next general elections given the poor results of the PP replied: «I would tell Rajoy; President, look in the mirror and answer yourself."

Meeting between Rajoy and the Secretary of State of the United States, John Kerry inside the Moncloa Palace.

Once the town councils were constituted on June 13, the Popular Party lost 17 mayoralties of provincial capitals, of the 34 it held in 2011, although it took two from the PSOE (Orense and Cuenca), so it would hold 19 in total. Of the 17 that lost, 11 went to the PSOE (thanks to the pacts with the citizen platforms promoted by Podemos and with other leftist forces), three to the Ahora Madrid, Marea Atlántica de La Coruña and Por Cádiz Sí Se Puede platforms, one to Compromís, one to the PNV and one to Izquierda Unida. Regarding the presidencies of the autonomous communities, the PP lost six of the ten it held in 2011, passing five of them to the PSOE thanks to the support of Podemos and other leftist forces such as Compromís and Més per Mallorca (Valencian Community, Balearic Islands, Aragón, Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura) and one to the Regionalist Party of Cantabria that had the support of the PSOE. It retained Castilla y León, Madrid, La Rioja and Murcia, thanks to the votes or abstention of Citizens.

On September 27, the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia were held with a historic participation of 77.6% of the voters. In them Junts pel Sí won 62 seats, Ciudadanos 25, the Socialist Party of Catalonia 16, Catalunya Sí que es Pot 11, the Popular Party also 11 and the Popular Unity-Call Constituent Candidacy 10.

On November 9, the Parliament of Catalonia approved with the affirmative votes of the deputies of Junts pel Sí and the CUP the start of the process of "disconnection" or independence between Catalonia and the rest of Spain.

2015 General Election

Rajoy voting in the general elections of 20 December 2015

On Friday, December 4, the electoral campaign began. On December 14, a single televised debate was held between the two candidates for the presidency of the Government of the two major political parties at the national level, Rajoy for the Popular Party and Pedro Sánchez for the PSOE, the debate had perhaps the most sour moment of all those held to date, when the socialist candidate stated: "the president has to be a decent person and you are not" to which Rajoy replied: "you have been mean, petty and miserable". Two days Later, on the 16th, during a walk in the Plaza de la Peregrina in Pontevedra and under a level 4 alert for terrorism active since June 2015, Rajoy was punched by a minor under 17 years of age, who was the son of a his wife's cousin, however, both families stated that they had never had a relationship. The young man, who called himself an anti-fascist, was later involved in various acts of a violent nature.

On Sunday, December 20, the twelfth general elections took place since the restoration of democracy and the first with Felipe VI as head of state. In this electoral event, the Popular Party was the candidacy that obtained the highest number of votes and seats with 123 deputies and 28.72% of votes, but compared to the 2011 elections it lost 63 seats and more than three and a half million votes., with which it did not revalidate the absolute majority. Likewise, to finish the PP lost an abundant number of votes in its "bastions" Communities. In the Community of Madrid it obtained 13 seats —6 less than in 2011— and lost more than half a million votes and in the Valencian Community they went from having 20 deputies —four years ago— to 11. However, the PP managed to maintain the absolute majority in the Senate.

Acting government (2015-2016)

Rajoy met with the president of the Generality of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, in the Moncloa. April 2016.

On January 22, 2016, the Royal Family issued a statement informing that after King Felipe VI offered Rajoy as the candidate for Prime Minister (—since the Popular Party was the force with the most votes —), Rajoy declined because he did not have enough support in advance to carry out the investiture. It was an unprecedented event in the history of Spain.

On February 2, the general secretary of the PSOE and candidate for the presidency of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, would accept the King's order to form a government and submit to the investiture session. In the investiture session, two votes were submitted, one on March 2 and another two days later. In the first he only counted the votes of his party and those of Ciudadanos. In the second, the same votes and one more vote from the Canary Coalition. It was also the first time in the history of Spain that an investiture session failed.

On April 15, the Minister of Industry and Tourism, José Manuel Soria submitted his resignation after having published the previous day in the newspaper El Mundo that an offshore company used in the tax haven of Jersey from 1993 to 2002. He was unable to resign as he was part of a government that was not fully functioning. limitations established by law (article 101 of the Spanish Constitution).

On May 3, 2016, the provisions of article 99.5 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 were activated and the king dissolved the Cortes to call again general elections, for the first time in democratic history the elections would be repeated.

If a two-month period has elapsed, from the first ballot, no candidate obtains the confidence of the Congress, the King will dissolve both Chambers and convene new elections with the endorsement of the President of Congress

Article 99 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.

2016 General Election

Rajoy together with the president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, in September 2016

In the general elections of June 26, 2016, the Popular Party won the elections with 33.01% of the votes and 137 seats (adding 14 more deputies in Congress compared to the previous legislature), and maintained the absolute majority in the Senate, once again being the force with the most votes, and the only one that improved its result. In the Spanish capital, the PP once again swept electorally by winning 18 of the 21 districts. After the round of contacts with the king, Mariano Rajoy accepts the task of forming a government. On August 9, Albert Rivera announced that he was willing to negotiate Ciudadanos' support for Rajoy's investiture if the PP accepted six measures against corruption and in favor of regeneration. A week later, Rajoy accepted these conditions and negotiations began. The president of the Congress of Deputies announced that the investiture session would begin on August 30. On August 28, PP and Ciudadanos signed an investiture pact with 150 measures to invest Mariano Rajoy as Prime Minister. this agreement was later joined by the Canary Islands Coalition demanding 15 more measures from Rajoy. Despite this, Sánchez maintained his refusal to vote no. At his inauguration he did not obtain the necessary votes and therefore he was not sworn in as president.

It should be noted that between July 9 and 10, the President of the United States Barack Obama visited Spain (15 years after his predecessor George W. Bush did so in 2001). He arrived in Madrid on Saturday the 9th at eleven o'clock at night and the following day he was received at the Royal Palace by King Felipe VI and by the acting President of the Government, Mariano Rajoy at the Moncloa Palace. This visit had to be shortened by the murder of five police officers in the US city of Dallas.

Galician and Basque elections of September 25, 2016 and internal crisis of the PSOE

PSOE Secretary General Pedro Sánchez

On September 25, regional elections were held in Galicia and the Basque Country. In Galicia the Popular Party won again with the same number of deputies (41), achieving an absolute majority for the third time in a row. Alberto Núñez Feijóo then became the only regional president to be able to govern without the support of other parties. In the Basque Country the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) won again — a party that has always won in them since the first regional elections since 1980 — with 28 seats, which would allow Iñigo Urkullu to remain another four years in Ajuria Enea. The second force in Parliament would continue to be EH Bildu (Abertzale Left) who lost seats and votes in favor of the political force that had won in the two previous general elections; Can. The PSE achieved the worst result in its history and the PP its second worst result in Euskadi (the worst was in 1990). But since 1994 it had never had less than ten deputies, now it has 9.

After the poor electoral results in the Basque and Galician elections, several members of the federal executive of the PSOE presented their resignation en bloc to provoke the resignation of Pedro Sánchez as Secretary General of the party. On the afternoon of October 1, In 2016, during a tense Federal Committee, Pedro Sánchez submitted his resignation as Secretary General. That same night it was notified that a provisional manager would succeed him, headed by the president of the Principality of Asturias, Javier Fernández. Three weeks later, the PSOE Federal Committee agreed to abstain in the second vote on Rajoy's investiture.

Second government (2016-2018)

Second investiture debate and government formation

Rajoy poses to the media outside the Moncloa Palace along with the thirteen ministers of his government in November 2016.

After once again accepting the commission from King Felipe VI, Rajoy underwent a second investiture debate, in which he managed to be sworn in in the second round by a simple majority —after having spent 315 days as acting executive and remaining two days so that the Cortes were automatically dissolved and the Spaniards were called to the polls for the third time—, thanks to the abstention of 68 of the 83 deputies present from the PSOE, and the favorable votes of the PP, Cs, CC and the electoral allies of the PP (UPN and Foro Asturias). On October 31, Rajoy was sworn in as Prime Minister before the King at the Palacio de la Zarzuela and formed his second Government. In February 2018, it was revealed by a survey by the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) that this government was the least known by the Spanish in the entire history of democracy —close to 54% of those surveyed.

On March 17, 2017, the popular government was unable to validate in plenary session of the Congress of Deputies the Royal Decree Law Regulating the Liberalization of Stevedores (approved by the Council of Ministers on February 24 of that same year). Never since 1979 has a government been unable to gather a simple majority necessary to validate a decree law.

Rajoy with the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto at the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. July 2017.

Rajoy with the president of Israel, Reuven Rivlin at the Moncloa Palace in November 2017.

The following day, the terrorist group ETA announced its plan to surrender its weapons (unilateral disarmament), revealing the location of its hideouts.

In just two months from February to April 2017, another wave of corruption affected the PP: on February 23, the former Minister of Economy during the eight years of Aznar's government, Rodrigo Rato was sentenced to four years and a half in prison for the "black card case" and on April 4, the president of the Region of Murcia, Pedro Antonio Sánchez, resigned due to his imputation for the "Auditorio Case". On April 19, the "Lezo operation" was made known to the country: the former president of the Community of Madrid and "right hand" of Esperanza Aguirre during her presidency in the regional executive, Ignacio González was arrested by the Civil Guard for enriching himself illegally for the diversion of public money from Canal Isabel II and ending up in prison. On the 24th, Aguirre resigned as councilor and spokesperson for the popular group of the Madrid City Council, which meant the end of her political career.

On March 13, the Constitutional Court sentenced the former president of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, to two years of disqualification from any public position and a fine of 36,500 euros for leading the participatory consultation of 9-N of 2014. Despite this, the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, announced on June that he would call on the Catalans to vote in a referendum with the following question: "Do you want Catalonia to be an independent state in the form of a republic?" on Sunday, October 1.

Thirty years later and for the third time in democratic history, a motion of no confidence was held against the President of the Government —on June 13 and 14— at the proposal of the leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, whose result of the vote was 170 against, 82 in favor and 97 abstentions. The PP, Ciudadanos, UPN, Foro Asturias and Coalición Canaria voted against. The PSOE, PDECat, PNV and Nueva Canarias abstained. They only voted in favor of Unidos Podemos, ERC and Bildu.

On July 26, Rajoy testified about the Gürtel case in the National Court, in which he denied that he had any type of proof of financing in B of the Popular Party.

Jihadist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils

Manifestation in support of the victims of the Barcelona and Cambrils attacks

Thirteen years and five months after the attack on March 11, 2004 in Madrid, Spain was once again the victim of a jihadist attack perpetrated by the Islamic State terrorist group. On August 17, 2017, around five in the afternoon, a Moroccan terrorist attacked a white van on Las Ramblas in Barcelona, traveling 500 meters at high speed towards the sea, zigzagging and indiscriminately running over any citizen in that area. moment. 14 people were killed. The perpetrator of this massacre fled on foot and mixed with the crowd at La Boquería, he escaped by kidnapping a driver and later murdering him. In the early hours of the following day, a vehicle attacked the Cambrils promenade (province of Tarragona), killing a woman and injuring five other people. The Mozos de Escuadra killed the five terrorists who perpetrated that attack. More than one hundred thousand people observed a minute of silence in Plaza de Catalunya in Barcelona at 12 o'clock in the morning as a sign of condemnation of the attack and in memory of the fatalities. The act ended with the unanimous cry of "No temim por" ("We are not afraid"). After four days of intense police search, on the 21st, before 5:00 p.m., the Mossos shot down in Subirats the material author of the Las Ramblas massacre. According to intelligence and police sources, this terrorist cell wanted to perpetrate the worst tragedy suffered in Western Europe since the end of World War II by wanting to attack the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and the Eiffel Tower in Paris with vans loaded with explosives, but it did not They were able to carry out this massacre when three terrorists from the so-called "Ripoll cell" (including the ringleader, the "Ripoll magnet") exploded the explosives they were preparing in Alcanar.

On the 26th of that same month, a massive demonstration was held in Barcelona —in which more than half a million people participated— in support of the victims and against terrorist violence, in which for the first time time in the history of democracy, the king participates in it. This demonstration was used by Catalan separatists to boo the king and the government of Spain. The main Italian daily, La Repubblica headlined on its front page: “nationalism without solidarity”.

Referendum in Catalonia and institutional crisis

Independence referendum of Catalonia

Police intervention at a Barcelona Institute during the October 1 referendum.

On September 6, 2017, the Parliament of Catalonia, with the votes of Junts pel Sí and the CUP, voted in favor of a Referendum Law —suspended a day later by the Constitutional Court—. The eleven deputies of Catalonia Sí que es Pot, abstained, and Ciudadanos, the Partit del Socialistes (PSC) and the Popular Party of Catalonia left the plenary session during the vote so as not to cover an "illegality". A referendum on the independence of Catalonia had just been called.

On Sunday, October 1, 2017, under unprecedented tension in Spain in recent decades, the newspaper El País described that day as «the greatest challenge faced by Spanish democracy » the referendum day of 1-O took place. The voting took place without the minimum guarantees after the Generalitat of Catalonia approved a universal electronic census and that it was possible to vote on ballots without an envelope and printed from home —without any type of legal guarantee. In the first hours, the intervention of civil guards and national police in various polling stations to try to prevent voting and seize the ballot boxes. The images of the police charges went around the world, the American news channel CNN described them with the headline: "the shame of Europe". On that same day, after half past ten at night, president Puigdemont together with his Government in an institutional appearance pronounced the following sentence: «On this day of hope and suffering, we citizens have earned the right to establish an independent State in the form of a republic». Five days later, the Generalitat provided the results, without their having been verified by any independent body: 43% of the census voted, that is, 2,286,217 people, of which 2 044 038 voted 'YES', representing 90% of the votes. On March 6, 2018, the daily El Mundo exclusively published that the National Police had recomposed some 400 pages of a Mossos report that they were going to incinerate that the independence process was designed in 2011 by the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) to cover up the corruption of the case 3%.

On Tuesday, October 3, a general strike was held in Catalonia called by Catalan pro-independence entities. At 9:00 p.m., the King of Spain, Felipe VI, appeared in a televised message. In his speech, the King warned of the seriousness of the situation in Catalonia as the Constitution had been violated by holding the illegal referendum and described the actions of the Generalitat as "inadmissible disloyalty to the powers of the State". After his speech, The pro-independence groups reproached the King for not having offered to mediate in the conflict between the Catalan institutions and the State. Carles Puigdemont commented: "Not like that." And the mayoress of Barcelona Ada Colau reproached him for not having mentioned those injured by the police charges in his speech. Spanish society, in general, and Catalan society, in particular, responded patriotically by placing Spanish flags on the balconies and attending en masse to the concentrations in defense of national unity -highlight the demonstration of October 8, 2017 in which more than a million people collapsed Barcelona-.

Suspension of the declaration of independence

On October 10, Puigdemont appeared in the Plenary Session of Parliament to make a unilateral declaration of independence for Catalonia: «... and I assume the mandate of the people so that Catalonia becomes an independent state in the form of a republic (...) the Government and I myself propose that Parliament suspend the effects of the declaration of independence so that in the coming weeks we begin a dialogue without which it is not possible to reach an agreed solution...». The next day, On October 11, after holding an extraordinary Council of Ministers, Rajoy announced that he had formally requested the Government of the Generalitat to confirm whether it had declared the independence of Catalonia.

On Saturday, October 21, Rajoy announced in Moncloa that for the first time since the establishment of democracy in Spain, the national government would apply Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution.

If an Autonomous Community fails to comply with the obligations imposed by the Constitution or other laws on it, or to act in a manner that seriously affects the general interest of Spain, the Government, upon request to the President of the Autonomous Community and, in the event that it is not addressed, with the approval of an absolute majority of the Senate, may take the necessary measures to force the latter to comply with such obligations or to protect the aforementioned general interest.

Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.

Application of Article 155 of the Constitution

Rajoy during his appearance at the Moncloa Palace announces elections in Catalonia.

Faced with the risk that the autonomy of Catalonia would be intervened by the central government in application of article 155 of the Constitution, Carles Puigdemont considered on Thursday, October 26, the possibility of calling elections for the Parliament of Catalonia and thus suspending the possible proclamation of independence, but when he already seemed convinced that this was the best option - he went so far as to summon the media to communicate the news to them - he backed down, according to what he said, due to the "lack of guarantees" on the part of the State that 155 would apply if he called elections.

On Friday the 27th, at 3:27 p.m., the Catalan Parliament approved the unilateral declaration of independence of Catalonia with 72 yeses, 10 noes and 2 blank votes. Neither Ciudadanos, nor the PSC nor the PP participated in the vote, who have been absent from the chamber. On that day, neither the United States nor any member country of the European Union recognized the independence of Catalonia. Simultaneously, the Senate approved it with 214 votes in favor of the PP, PSOE (the former presidents of the Balearic Islands and the Generalitat of Catalonia; Francesc Antich and José Montilla were absent from the vote), Ciudadanos, UPN, Foro y Coalición Canaria-AHI and 47 against Podemos, ERC, PNV PDeCAT, Compromís and EH Bildu the application of article 155 of the Spanish Constitution 1978 in Catalonia. In the afternoon, after holding an extraordinary Council of Ministers, Rajoy announced the dismissal of president Puigdemont and all his consellers, the dissolution of the Parliament and the surprise call for early elections in Catalonia for December 21. In the early morning of the new day, the BOE published the decision of the Ministry of the Interior to dismiss the highest of the Mossos, Josep Lluís Trapero.

On November 2, the judge of the National Court Carmen Lamela ordered the former vice president of the Generalitat, Oriol Junqueras, and eight other former advisers of the dismissed Government —Jordi Turull, to be sent to prison for alleged crimes of sedition, rebellion and embezzlement. Josep Rull, Meritxell Borràs, Joaquim Forn, Raül Romeva, Dolors Bassa and Carles Mundó—. Three days later, Puigdemont, who had fled to Brussels (Belgium) accompanied by four former advisers of his executive. On April 5 of that same year, the German justice denied the extradition of Puigdemont to Spain because he rejected the crime for which he was arrested, the one of rebellion.

Autonomous elections in Catalonia on December 21

On Thursday, December 21, 2017, the twelfth elections to the Catalan Parliament were held since the establishment of the Autonomy of Catalonia and the fourth since 2010, but these were in a climate of maximum polarization due to the bitter confrontation between the independence bloc and the constitutionalist and it was reflected in the participation data since it exceeded 81% of the electoral census, despite the fact that it was a working day. The political force with the most votes was Ciudadanos, which obtained more than one million votes and 36 seats ―It was the first time that a non-nationalist Catalan party had won an election to the Parliament of Catalonia―, but the three pro-independence parties achieved an absolute majority by adding a total of 70 deputies: Junts per Catalunya, 34 deputies; Republican Left of Catalonia, 32; and the CUP, 4. Between the three they obtained 47.49% of the votes, while the “constitutionalist” parties (Ciudadanos, PSC and PP) obtained 43.49% and added 57 seats. Catalonia in Comú-Podem, obtained 8 seats and 7.45% of the votes.

Roger Torrent, president of the Parliament of Catalonia, in an act to ask for the freedom of the "political prisoners" Oriol Junqueras, Joaquim Forn, Jordi Sànchez Picanyol and Jordi Cuixart. It appears in the center holding the banner Polytic prisoners. Llibertat.

The new Parlament that emerged from the 21-D elections was constituted on January 17, 2018, with the new president of the chamber being elected Roger Torrent, from the Republican Left of Catalonia, and the board of the The Parlament that was constituted in the same session had a pro-independence majority. and that he considered himself the "legitimate" president of Catalonia. The government of Mariano Rajoy reacted immediately and filed an appeal before the Constitutional Court to reject Puigdemont's candidacy. The Constitutional Court, before going into the merits of the matter, warned the president and the Board of the Catalan Parliament that in order to be sworn in, the candidate had to be present in the chamber and have obtained permission to attend from Judge Pablo Llarena, who was handling his case. in the Supreme Court. Torrent complied with the decision of the Constitutional Court and postponed the plenary session of investiture on the same day January 30 that it was scheduled to be held until it was assured to hold one in which the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia could be elected. "effectively and with guarantees". Junts per Catalunya and the CUP criticized Torrent's decision since they wanted Puigdemont's "presence" to be accepted in the investiture debate by electronic means or by delegation of the reading of his speech in some other deputy, and then proceed to the vote.

President Puigdemont, the day after the proclamation of independence, speaking a speech from Gerona broadcast on television. The speech was recorded and when it was issued on Saturday, October 28 Puigdemont was already on his way to Brussels.

It took more than a month for Esquerra Republicana and Junts per Cataluña to find a way out of the blockade situation in the Parlament. Thus, on March 1, 2018, a motion was approved with the votes of the three pro-independence groups denouncing the "illegal and illegitimate dismissal" of Carles Puigdemont as president of the Generalitat, thus denying the validity of the application of article 155, and in which the favorable result to the independence of the illegal referendum held on October 1 was claimed. Sànchez Picanyol, number 2 on the Junts per Catalunya list and then in pretrial detention, as his replacement.

However, Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena denied permission for Sánchez to attend the investiture plenary session that was scheduled for March 12 ―which Torrent had to suspend until the appeal that was going to be resolved was resolved. present Sánchez's lawyers―, so the blockade situation continued, further aggravated by the CUP's rejection of Sánchez's candidacy because supporting it would mean "submission to Spanish legality" and because it was not aimed at "materializing of the republic".

The third attempt to inaugurate a president of the Generalitat was also unsuccessful because the candidate Jordi Turull did not get the support of the CUP in the first vote held on March 22 and because the next day Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena he was sent to prison along with three other ex-ministers and the former president of the Parlament Carme Forcadell. A fourth attempt was also unsuccessful because on April 12 Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena once again denied permission from prison to Jordi Sànchez Picanyol, who for the second time had been proposed as a candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat, for which reason the president of the Parlament Roger Torrent had to postpone the investiture plenary session scheduled for the following day.

Finally, and after the attempt thwarted by the Constitutional Court to inaugurate Carles Puigdemont from a distance, the Parlament sworn in on May 14 by a simple majority —with the votes of Junts per Catalunya and Esquerra Republican and the abstention of the CUP— as the new president of the Generalitat to Quim Torra, the candidate appointed by Puigdemont from Berlin. His first words after the vote were to thank "President Puigdemont" of whom he assured: "We will invest him."

Last months: dissolution of ETA and motion of no confidence

Rajoy congratulates Sanchez after the vote of the motion of censorship

On February 19, 2018, the Minister of Economy, Luis de Guindos was chosen as a candidate for the vice-presidency of the European Central Bank (ECB) with which he left his portfolio, being replaced by Román Escolano on March 8.

On May 2, 2018, the terrorist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) announced in a letter its dissolution after more than half a century of terror, kidnappings, extortion and more than 800 murders. On April 20, ETA had published a document in which he recognized for the first time "the damage he has caused in the course of his armed career" and asked for "pardon" from the victims who did not have "a direct participation in the conflict".

Following the ruling of the National Court which condemned the Popular Party in the Gürtel case and defined it as a "system of institutional corruption" added to the resignation of the president of the Community of Madrid Cristina Cifuentes for the "case Master" (April 25) and the detection of Eduardo Zaplana —former president of the Valencian Community and former PP spokesman in the Congress of Deputies— for money laundering (May 22), the leader of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, promoted a motion of no confidence against Rajoy that was voted on Friday, June 1, 2018. 176 votes were necessary for it to go ahead. In the debate the day before, a sufficient number of deputies expressed their intention to support it and finally 180 deputies supported it against 169 who did not and one abstention.

Post-presidency

Mariano Rajoy and his successor to the front of the Pablo Casado Popular Party.

After losing the motion of censure and losing power, on June 5, he announced the summons of the Extraordinary Meeting of the PP in order to call an extraordinary congress to elect his successor as president of the party; he justified his decision to leave the leadership of the PP as follows: “because it is the best for me and for the PP. And I think also for Spain."

On June 15 of that same year, he announced his resignation from his seat as deputy, stating his intention to resume the exercise of his former profession as property registrar. The vacancy in his seat in Congress was filled by Valentina Martínez Ferro who took possession of her deputy act on June 19.

Formally requested —to the former General Directorate of Registries and Notaries— his return to the active service of the Corps of registrars, this became effective when he took possession of his last destination in the Property Registry Number 1 of Santa Pola (Alicante). After only a month working there, he immediately participated in the ordinary transfer competition provided for all registrars and which is convened every four months by the aforementioned General Directorate. Once the competition was resolved, Rajoy obtained a position in the city of Madrid as holder of the Mercantile Registry number V, making his appointment effective at the end of September 2018.

On April 30, 2019, he was invited to join as a full member of the Club of Madrid, together with the former President of Seychelles James Michel and the former President of the Italian Council of Ministers Mario Monti.

Imputation

An Andorran judge accused Rajoy of coercing Andorran banks during a visit to Andorra to obtain bank details of the Pujol family and other Catalan independent politicians in the so-called "Operation Catalonia".

Works

• In confidence. My life and my change project for Spain (2011). Editorial Planeta. ISBN 978-84-08-10732-3
• A better Spain (2019). Plaza & Janés. ISBN 978-84-01-02273-9
• Adult policy (2021). Plaza & Janés. ISBN 978-84-01-02867-0

Distinctions and decorations

Arms Shield of the Order of Elizabeth the Catholic^{[chuckles]required]}

Spanish

• Necklace of the Order of Isabella the Catholic
• Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III

Foreigners

• Band Special Category of the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle
• Gran Cruz de la Orden El Sol del Perú
• Banda de la Orden de la República de Serbia
• Gran Cruz de la Orden al Mérito de Chile

Distinction

• Doctor honoris causa en Derecho by Universidad Sergio Arboleda (2012).
• Gold Medal of the Professional Cycling Council (2001).
• Award «Emilio Castelar» 2016 to the best speaker of the Association of Parliamentary Journalists (APP).