Miguel Angel Revilla

Miguel Ángel Revilla Roiz (Salceda, Polaciones, Cantabria, January 23, 1943) is a Spanish economist, professor, writer and politician, current president of Cantabria and general secretary of the Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC).

Biography

He was born in 1943 in the town of Salceda, belonging to the Cantabrian municipality of Polaciones. Divorced, he is married for the second time to Aurora Díaz Abella, a native of the El Bierzo region. He has three daughters, two from his first marriage.

Graduate in Economics and Business Administration and a diploma in Banking and Stock Market from the University of the Basque Country, he is a bank employee on leave of absence. Between 1974 and 1982 he directed the Banco Atlántico branch in Torrelavega. Likewise, from 1979 to 1982 he was a professor of Economic Structure at the Santander School of Business Management, before joining the University of Cantabria, where he was an associate professor of Economic Policy and Public Finance until 1995.

Political career

During his youth, during the Franco dictatorship, he was a member of the single party of the regime, the "Movimiento". He combined this militancy with his affiliation with the Vertical Union and in 1973 he agreed to the position of regional union delegate in Torrelavega. However, as Revilla later declared to the writer Virginia Drake, during his university period in the Basque Country he would have managed to organize "a subversive and anti-Franco union".

In 1976 he created the Association for the Defense of the Interests of Cantabria (ADIC), and from it he founded, in 1978, the Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC), representing which he has been a deputy since 1983. In 1988 the The PRC congress elected him as general secretary, a position he currently holds, revalidated by successive party congresses.

During the 1995-1999 and 1999-2003 legislatures, he was Vice President and Counselor for Public Works, Housing and Urban Planning of the Cantabrian executive in a coalition government with the Popular Party (PP).

Revilla at the Colegio Mayor Elías Ahúja in Madrid in 2011

After the regional elections of May 25, 2003, he agreed with the PSC-PSOE a coalition government in which, despite the fact that his party only obtained 8 seats, the 13 of the PSC-PSOE granted him the presidency adding 21 seats, 3 more than those obtained by the PP. On June 27, 2003 he was elected president of Cantabria.

In the regional elections of May 27, 2007, his party won 12 seats and made possible the reissue of the pact with some Socialists who in this case only won 10 seats. However, the PRC maintained the same political weight in the Government.

In the 2008 general elections, in which the Regionalist Party of Cantabria decided not to run, without asking for a vote for any party, Revilla showed his preferences for the continuity of Rodríguez Zapatero as president and even went so far as to attend a PSOE rally in Santander in which Felipe González participated.

In 2010, he was the highest rated regional president in his community, according to a CIS survey.

In the regional elections in Spain in 2011, he failed to renew the PRC-PSOE pact in the Community when the PP obtained an absolute majority, for which reason he ceased to be president of Cantabria.

Thanks to the regional elections in Spain in 2015, he managed to stay one seat away from drawing with the PP. In this way, he renewed the PRC-PSOE pact and with his votes and the abstention of Podemos, Miguel Ángel Revilla became President of Cantabria for the third time.

The 2019 regional elections marked the heyday of the PRC, which fell three seats short of an absolute majority. This result allowed Revilla to revalidate a fourth term, again, with the PSC-PSOE.

Television career

Miguel Ángel Revilla has taken advantage of his character to make numerous appearances on Spanish television programs.

His television facet began collaborating between 2007 and 2009 on Buenafuente, on La Sexta, where he participated once a month in a fixed section dedicated to commenting on current events.

Since September 2010 he has been a regular guest on the morning show El programa de Ana Rosa and in February 2011 he became a contributor to La noria, both broadcast on Telecinco.

The money obtained from such collaborations was donated in its entirety to the Santander Economic Kitchen. Since 2013 he participated in the program La Sexta noche on La Sexta, he joined Las mañanas as a talk show host Cuatro and has collaborated sporadically on Open your eyes and look on Telecinco.

He has also appeared as a guest on Everything is going well, Traveling with Chester on Cuatro and Talk to them on Telecinco. On Sunday, November 30, 2014, he premiered his own program on Telecinco: This country is worth it .

On April 1, 2016, he participated in the program Two days and one night on Antena Tres Televisión.

In 2010, the Madrid publisher "La esfera de los Libros" published Revilla: Politically Incorrect, by journalist Virginia Drake.

He was a guest character in two Telecinco programs in the interview space My house is yours with Bertín Osborne.

In addition to these television interventions, he has regularly been a guest on the program El hormiguero, where he has commented on current affairs; He has also been interviewed on several occasions on LaSexta programs such as la Sexta noche and Liarla Pardo , among others.

Published Works

• The economy of Cantabria (1978).
• Nobody is more than anyone (2012, Spass-Calpe).
• The jungle of the ready (2014, Espasa-Calpe).
• This country is worth (2014, Espasa-Calpe).
• Being happy is not expensive (2016).
• No censorship (2018, Spass-Calpe).
• Why don't we love each other? (2020).