Background
He was born in Solares village, municipality of Medio Cudeyo, in Cantabria autonomous community.
He was born in Solares village, municipality of Medio Cudeyo, in Cantabria autonomous community.
He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Organic Chemistry from the Complutense University of Madrid.
He served in the government of Spain as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993 and as Minister of the Interior from 2006 to 2011. In addition, he was First Deputy Prime Minister from 2010 to 2011. He obtained a doctorate in chemistry at Complutense University in Madrid, where he went on to become a professor of chemistry, specialising in reaction mechanisms in organic chemistry.
Rubalcaba was appointed Minister of Education and Science in 1992 by President Felipe González.
The following year he was made Minister of the President"s office and Relationships with Congress, an office he had to abandon in 1996 when his party lost the elections. In the successful campaign of 2004 he worked as chief strategist.
When José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero formed the new government, Rubalcaba was appointed Majority leader until 2006 when he succeeded José Antonio Alonso as Interior Minister. On October 2010 he added to his functions the position of First Deputy Prime Minister and Spokesperson of the government.
Nevertheless, in May 2011, Chacón announced that she was withdrawing from the race and in June the Party announced that no other candidate had filed and Rubalcaba became the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party)"s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2011 general elections.
On 8 July 2011, he resigned from his duties in the government in order to focus on the general election campaign, which he lost getting the worst results in Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party)"s history. He received 487 votes against 465 for Carme Chacón. Pedro Sánchez was elected to succeed him as party leader on 13 July 2014.