Esperanza Aguirre

Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma (born 3 January 1952) is a Spanish politician.

Aguirre was born in Madrid on 3 January 1952 being the eldest daughter of José Luis Aguirre Borrell, a noted lawyer, and Piedad Gil de Biedma Vega de Seoane, the sister of the poet Jaime Gil de Biedma.

She is also second cousin of the photographer Ouka Leele.

She studied in the La Asunción School and in the British Council School of Madrid and earned a degree in Law at the Complutense University of Madrid in 1974.

Aside from Spanish, she is reportedly fluent in English and French, has basic notions of Italian and "understands" Catalan.

In 1974, Aguirre married Fernando Ramírez de Haro, 15th Count of Murillo, 16th Count of Bornos (Grandee of Spain), whom with she has had two sons: Fernando (born 1976) and Álvaro (born 1980).

In 1976 Aguirre became a civil servant, as member of the Corps of Information of Tourism's Technicians.

She was head of the Department of Publicity and Tourism, where she remained until 1979.

Subsequently, she had many different jobs in the Ministry of Culture, serving several Ministers during the Democratic Centre Union governments; especially designated by the Prime Minister himself.

In 1979, she was chief of staff of the General Director of Literature and Cinematography.

She was appointed Deputy General Director of Studies of the Technical General Secretariat of the Ministry of Culture in 1980.

In 1981, she was appointed Deputy General Director in the Advisory Staff of the Secretary of State of Culture.

Her last position with the Administration was as Deputy General Director of Cultural Associations.

Since her early years Aguirre had been a member of the Club Liberal of Madrid, which was presided over by Pedro Schwartz.

Schwartz reportedly played an important role in the beginnings of Aguirre's political career: in 1983, he was the one to convince her, by then a civil servant; to stand as candidate in the Madrid local elections running in the list of the political alliance between Schwartz's Liberal Union, the People's Alliance and the People's Democratic Party.

She was elected as became a municipal councillor.

While in opposition, she was a member of the Standing Committee of the Madrid City Council, a CP spokeswoman on the areas of Culture, Education, Youth and Sports Affairs, and the Moncloa-Aravaca district.

When the Liberal Union merged with the Liberal Party in December 1984, she held different positions in the National Executive and the Political Council of José Antonio Segurado's Liberal Party.

In 1987 she left the Liberal Party and joined Popular Alliance, which later, in 1989, was refounded as the People's Party (PP).

She was subsequently re-elected to the city council and continued in opposition until 1989, when a successful vote of no confidence ousted the PSOE mayor Juan Barranco, which allowed the PP and Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) to govern Madrid for the first time since the restoration of competitive municipal elections in 1979, under the Mayorship of Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún (CDS).

In the new local executive, she was designated head of the Department of the Environment.

The PP won a council majority in the 1991 election and José María Álvarez del Manzano was subsequently invested as new mayor, with Aguirre remaining in the municipal government board.

Two years later, in 1993, in the reshuffle that followed the fall from grace of firebrand councillor Ángel Matanzo, she assumed additional competences becoming Councillor of Environment, Education, Culture and Sports.

In June 1995, after the May election, she became the municipal spokeswoman of the PP and first deputy mayor.

Soon after, she was also appointed by the City Council to the Caja Madrid Board of Governors.

In the general election of 1996 she was the candidate for the Senate for Madrid of the People's Party, after her designation as a member of the National Executive Committee of the Party; and she became a senator.

The then new President, José María Aznar, appointed her to be Minister of Education, Culture and Sports.

Aguirre, a Senator since 1996, was elected President of the Senate in February 1999, the first woman to do so.

As member of the People's Party (PP), she served as President of the Senate between 1999 and 2002 (becoming the first female politician to have held the post), as President of the Community of Madrid between 2003 and 2012 and as Minister of Education and Culture (1996–1999).

She was succeeded in those posts in 1999 by Mariano Rajoy.

In March 2000, she was re-elected Senator for Madrid, becoming the top-voted candidate in Spain with 1.55 million votes and 50.7% of the popular vote, a percentage record still unbroken.

She resigned in 2002 to run for the Presidency of the Autonomous Community of Madrid in the regional Assembly elections of 2003.

She was substituted as President of the Senate by Juan José Lucas.

When the regional elections took place in May 2003, the People's Party won a plurality of seats.

The People's Party won 55 seats in the Madrid Assembly, being the only party of the right in the Assembly.

On the left, PSOE won 47 seats and United Left won 9 seats, thus making it possible for a coalition of PSOE and IU to rule.

However, the election of a leftist coalition was not possible due to two dissenting deputies of the PSOE, Eduardo Tamayo and María Teresa Sáez, who refused to obey the party whip in the first two votes, the election of the speaker and the election of the president.

In October 2003, following the scandal of the dissenting deputies, the regional elections were rerun.

The People's Party won a qualified majority of seats, which enabled Aguirre's investiture as President of the Community of Madrid.

She also chaired the People's Party of the Community of Madrid between 2004 and 2016.