Mariano Rajoy

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Mariano Rajoy Brey (born March 27, 1955), Spanish politician, is the leader of the opposition and of the conservative Popular Party, (PP). Rajoy led his party at the Spanish general election on March 14, 2004, which was won by the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).

Rajoy was born in Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia in north-western Spain, a traditionally conservative region. He holds a degree in law from the University of Santiago de Compostela and at the age of 24 he became the youngest property register of Spain (one of the most difficult oppositions in the spanish administration). He started his political career in Galicia in 1981, as a member of the right-wing Alianza Popular ("People's Alliance", AP) party in the Xunta de Galicia.

A long-time collaborator with José María Aznar, he moved into national politics when Aznar became Prime Minister in 1996, serving as Minister of Education and Culture with the first Aznar administration. He managed the successful People's Party campaign in the 2000 elections. In February 2001 he added the Interior Ministry to his duties.

On 30 August 2003 Aznar announced that he would retire at the 2004 elections and designated Rajoy as its successor as Party's new leader. His record as Interior Minister enabled him to run as a "law and order" candidate promising to be tough on Basque terrorism.^{[citation needed]} This issue assumed new importance in the 2004 general elections in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Madrid on March 11, which were initially blamed on the Basque terrorist organisation ETA (but were later proven to be the work of Al-Qaida).

Aznar's government and Party leaders insisted on accusing ETA of the attacks, and on March 13, Rajoy claimed to be convinced of their responsibility for these crimes. [1] There were accusations of manipulation of the information regarding these attacks.

On December 1, 2005 he survived a helicopter accident, along with Madrid Regional Government President Esperanza Aguirre, in which he broke a finger.[2]

Preceded by Joan Lerma i Blasco	Minister for Public Administrations of Spain 1996 - 1999	Succeeded by Ángel Acebes Paniagua
Preceded by Esperanza Aguirre	Minister of Education of Spain 1999 - 2000	Succeeded by Pilar del Castillo
Preceded by Francisco Álvarez Cascos	First Vice President of Spain 2000 - 2003	Succeeded by Rodrigo Rato Figaredo
Preceded by Francisco Álvarez Cascos	Minister of the Presidency of Spain 2000 - 2001	Succeeded by Juan José Lucas
Preceded by Jaime Mayor Oreja	Minister of the Interior of Spain 2001 - 2002	Succeeded by Ángel Acebes
Preceded by Juan José Lucas	Minister of the Presidency of Spain 2002 - 2003	Succeeded by Javier Arenas Bocanegra
Preceded by José María Aznar	Chairman of the Popular Party (Spain) 2004 – present	Incumbent