Background
He was born on March 27, 1955, in Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Galicia. He is the son of Olga Brey López and Mariano Rajoy Sobredo, a jurist, and president of the Provincial Court of Pontevedra, the city where he grew up.
2011
Mariano Rajoy with his wife celebrating elections of 2011.
2011
Adressing public as a prime minister.
2013
Meeting with Putin at G20 summit in 2013.
2014
With Angela Merkel as part of a two days summit on August 25, 2014 in Santiago de Compostela.
2015
A worker removing a campaign poster depicting Spain's acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy, one day after an inconclusive general election, December 21, 2015.
2015
Leaving the office in 2015.
2017
Meeting with Trump in 2017.
2019
Spending vacation in 2019.
Police confronting demonstrators in Madrid who were protesting reports of corruption among high-level government officials in Spain, July 18, 2013.
He was born on March 27, 1955, in Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Galicia. He is the son of Olga Brey López and Mariano Rajoy Sobredo, a jurist, and president of the Provincial Court of Pontevedra, the city where he grew up.
After finishing secondary school he started university, enrolling in the Law Faculty in Santiago de Compostela and passed the competitive examination required in Spain to enter into the civil service, becoming the youngest-ever property registrar at age 23.
Mariano Rajoy joined the People’s Alliance, the right-wing party and became a deputy in the Galician Parliament in 1981 and by the next year, he got promoted as Minister of Institutional Relations of Xunta de Galicia. Four years later, his hard work promoted him as the President of Provincial Council, Pontevedra and he remained on the position until 1991. In between, he kept himself busy with assuming different positions within the party and took the post of President of Xunta de Galicia.
In the year 1989, People’s Alliance went into merging with two other parties, becoming People’s Party and Manuel Fraga became party’s president. Rajoy was in his good-books and was named as a member of the National Executive Committee. When PP scored big in the 1996’s general elections, Rajoy became a member of Commission of Parliamentary Control. In March 1996, PP won the parliamentary elections and formed the government with a few other political parties, while Rajoy was appointed as Minister of Public Administration.
In January 1999, he replaced Esperanza Aguirre to become the Minister of Education and Culture and right after this big feat, he was appointed as the vice-president of People’s Party. Rajoy was on a roll by then and his personal relations with the Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar made him grow rapidly through important positions in the government. One such big promotion happened in February 2001, when he became Interior Minister and in the very next year, he became the spokesperson for the government.
By then, he had become almost the right-hand man of the President of People’s Party, Aznar, as he announced his retirement from politics. Rajoy was named by him as his successor and Rajoy, as a result became the new chairman of the party in October 2004. PP had just lost the elections, which forced Aznar to take the retirement. PSOE formed the government and as the leader of the opposition, Rajoy had to work hard to bring his party on the top.
During the 2008 general elections, Rajoy faced a lot of flak from within the party due to his decision of keeping Alberto Gallardon out of the elections. The general belief was that Alberto was a popular politician and having him on-board could have ensured a victory. And moreover, he was known to follow a centrist approach to politics, while Rajoy was a conservative. This led to a risk of party dividing in two, but external support from Germany and France ensured Rajoy’s position as the leader of the People’s Party. The election was lost.
But the 2011 election was a whole another story; it was dominated with blame games on the economical issues and PSOE was accused of slowing down the pace of Spanish economy, which in turn caused the lack of employment opportunities for the Spanish youth. Rajoy showed the declining data to the media and said that this is a sad phase for Spain and that the socialist government of PSOE doesn’t know how to handle this situation efficiently and promised that when he forms the government, this all will change.
In November 2011, PP secured a record victory in the general elections and Rajoy was named the Prime Minister of Spain on 21st December 2011. However, his first act as the Prime Minister was bold, but received quite a lot of criticism. He appointed 13 ministers, which was lowest any government prior to him had. Right after he assumed the position, he took several hard steps of cutting out several ministries, halting the rent assistance, increased tax among many other things, to bring Spain out of the financial crisis that it was facing.
In the 2015 elections, the People’s Party remained in the government as the most voted party but it somehow lost its majority in the parliament. It led to a complex situation and the decision was taken to carry out re-elections, which took place in 2016 and despite again falling short of seats, Rajoy was re-elected as the Prime Minister after a few PSOE members abstained from voting. By that year, the Spanish economy had shown great signs of improvement and emerged as one of the fastest growing European economies, resulting in a general support for Rajoy.
During the 2015 election campaign, Rajoy asserted that the PP “was the only party defending the unity of Spain.” Among his electoral promises was the creation of a National Museum of Spanish History intended to “defend the unity of Spain.” The location chosen for making this announcement left little doubt about the nationalist undertones of that proposal: the site of the Battle of Covadonga, in the northwestern region of Asturias. That battle is recognized as the first triumph by Christian military forces after the Muslim conquest of the Iberia Peninsula in 711–718. As befits this accomplishment, historians usually consider Covadonga as the site of the beginning of the Reconquista, or the “reconquest” of the Iberian Peninsula by Christian rulers.
Rajoy declared himself a strong supporter of allowing migrants to enter Spain saying Spain would support those seeking asylum. In 2015, he criticised the Hungarian government for taking steps to deter migration into their country. Despite making these statements, the Government of Rajoy was highly criticized for taking anti-immigration measures such as cutting budget to immigration observatories, and the reinforcement of the fence of Melilla, with highly criticised "hot returns" - the illegal expulsion of migrants by the police without any legally established procedures or meeting the international obligations - with police violence eventually taking place. These acts were condemned by the European Court of Human Rights and the UN. The following months, the Rajoy executive refused to repeal the hot returns and appealed the sentence of Strasbourg.
Rajoy is one of the very few leaders of Spain, who have supported the Bull fighting game, saying that it’s an integral part of their culture and must be there. He also allowed telecasting the sport on the Television.
Rajoy had his biography ‘En Confianza’ published during the campaign trail in 2011, giving the general population a glimpse of his life.
Member of the Spanish Parliament since 1986.
Rajoy married Elvira "Viri" Fernández Balboa on 28 December 1996, in La Toja island (Pontevedra). The couple have two children.