Margarita Robles

At the 39th Socialist Congress she supported Pedro Sánchez's candidacy to Secretary-General of the party (despite not being able to vote herself as she was not a card carrying member).

After Sánchez had won the congress, Robles was appointed spokesperson of the Socialist Parliamentary Group, replacing José Luis Ábalos.

María Margarita Robles Fernández (born 10 November 1956 in León) is a Spanish judge and politician, currently serving as Minister of Defence since June 2018.

Robles was born in 1956 in León, the daughter of a lawyer and housewife.

She undertook her primary education in the Teresian Carmelites school.

At the age of 12, her family moved to Barcelona, where she graduated in law at the University of Barcelona.

Her younger brother is a doctor.

In 1981, at age 25, Robles entered the Judiciary, after completing her training at the Judiciary School, first of her class, and became the fourth woman judge in Spain.

At age 26 she took her first assignment as Judge of First Instance and Inquiry of Balaguer, later she was assigned to Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Bilbao.

She was the first woman ever to chair a contentious-administrative chamber.

She was a Justice at the Audiencia Provincial of Barcelona, becoming its Chief Justice at age 34, and becoming the first woman to be the chief justice of an Audiencia Provincial.

Close to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in 1993 she was appointed Under Secretary of the Ministry of Justice under Juan Alberto Belloch.

On her inauguration she established as her top priority to implement fast trials in Spain.

Between 1994 and 1996, during the last government of Felipe González, Robles served as the first Secretary of State for the Interior, becoming the de facto second-in-command of the superministry of Justice and the Interior, also under Belloch.

During her time as Secretary of State for the Interior, Robles promoted the investigation of the kidnapping and murder of José Antonio Lasa and José Ignacio Zabala, she withdrew the funds from the GAL dirty war for José Amedo and Michel Domínguez and she ordered the search and capture of Luis Roldán.

With the appointment of Pedro Sánchez as Prime Minister of Spain, Robles was appointed by Sánchez a week later to assume the office of Minister of Defence thus vanishing the speculation that Robles could take over a "superministry" of Interior and Justice (as happened between 1994 and 1996 with minister Juan Alberto Belloch).

At the beginning of her term as Defence Minister, Robles had to face some controversies like the prohibition to use tattoos in visible places that mainly affected women (because of the use of the skirt in the female military uniform), the publication of a manifesto by retired military officials in support of dictator Franco and more controversies around the S-80 class submarine.

Her department approved major defence projects like upgrading the budget of the S-80 submarines by € 1.8 billion, and another billion for the modernization of the Boeing CH-47 Chinook of the Army which added to other military projects, in her first 3 months in office she approved investments worth 5 billion.

After Gonzalez lost the 1996 General Elections, Robles returned to the judiciary and became a justice at the contentious-administrative chamber of the Audiencia Nacional.

From May 2004 until May 2016 she was a Justice at the Supreme Court, in the third Chamber.

In 2004, she was appointed Justice of the third chamber of the Supreme Court, becoming the fourth woman ever to be appointed to the highest court.

She was a member of the General Council of the Judiciary from September 2008 until December 2013 on the proposal of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.

She belongs to the progressive judge association Judges for Democracy.

In September 2008 she was elected member of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), being considered of one of its most active members.

In March 2010, Margarita Robles, along with conservatives Fernando de Rosa Torner and Gemma Gallego Sánchez, were challenged as members by the judge of the National Court, Baltasar Garzón, who asked the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court to keep him in his position, for being the three CGPJ members that have shown the most animosity against him.

She served as such until December 2013.

During her term as such, she supported the removal from office of the President of the General Council of the Judiciary and President of the Supreme Court, Carlos Dívar.

In May 2016 she was elected to the Congress of Deputies for the PSOE representing Madrid.

In May 2016, Robles jumped back into politics when Pedro Sánchez announced she would occupy the second spot of the socialist list for Madrid in the upcoming general election.

Robles requested a leave of absence from the judiciary, but on 19 May the CGPJ voted 4 to 3 that a leave of absence to occupy a political position implies the renunciation of the position as Supreme Court Justice.

She positioned with Sánchez in the ensuing leadership crisis that affected the PSOE following the elections.

During the investiture vote of Mariano Rajoy, she was one of the 15 socialist MP's that did not abstain, thus rejecting her party's line.

On 25 June 2017, in an interview in La Sexta, Police Commissioner Villarejo accused her of commissioning a report against Garzón.

In June 2018, following the successful vote of no confidence against Mariano Rajoy, Robles was appointed Minister of Defence by the new Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

On 4 September 2018 the Ministry of Defence announced that it was considering cancelling a major contract with Saudi Arabia consisting in 400 laser-guided bombs because of the possible use of these weapons in the Yemeni War.

However, a few days later the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister itself confirmed that the contract would go ahead to avoid a possible diplomatic conflict with Saudi Arabia that could put at risk Navantia's 2 billion contract.

In October that year, when the assassination of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi was discovered the international community rapidly reproached this event and some European countries like Germany cancelled its military contracts with Saudi Arabia and called for the rest of EU countries to do the same, a petition that was ignored by those countries including Spain, in order to protect thousands of jobs that said military contract generates.

From November 2019 to January 2020, she served as Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs.

She was the first woman ever to chair a contentious-administrative chamber, the first to ever preside a provincial court (Barcelona's) and the first woman to reach the Supreme Court of Spain.

She has also held the positions of Secretary of State for Security during the González Governments.