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Mariano Rajoy Brey, President of the Government of Spain

Rajoy does not posses great charisma, and many were surprised when former President Aznar hand-picked him as his successor in 2003. Friend and foe alike agree that he is not the most charismatic of politicians but Rajoy, in fairness, did not promise fireworks. Born 27 March 1955, the Roman Catholic son of a lawyer, he was brought up in Santiago de Compostela, north-western Spain, and after studying law became a land registrar. The married father-of-two is known to be a fan of cycling and the Real Madrid football team. A moderate cigar-smoker, his idea of exercise is a good walk. The lanky man in glasses first grew his beard when injuries from a serious car crash prevented him from shaving. Little else is known about his private life, and his wife Elvira Fernandez is very rarely seen in public.

Elected a PP regional deputy at the age of 26, he climbed through the ranks, serving as a minister in the Aznar governments of 1996-2004. He served as Deputy Prime Minister of Spain from 2000-2003 under the administration of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.

The Popular Party (PP), led by Mariano Rajoy, pledged in 2004 to continue the PP's commitment to a strong transatlantic alliance, supporting a Spanish military role in Iraq peacekeeping efforts and maintaining close ties with the United States in the War on Terrorism. The PP also promised to keep the strong economy on track and to preserve the integrity of the Spanish state from growing nationalist pressures in Catalonia and the Basque Country.

In the 2004 electionk, the key issue which differentiated the PP and the Socialists on regional/constitutional issues and terrorism is the Carod-ETA meeting scandal. The PP sought to position itself as the responsible party which will defend the constitution, and to paint the Socialists as a disunited party that cannot stand up for the unity of the Spanish state. With eight years of strong, steady economic growth and record levels of job creation, the PP can claim it is the party of economic stability and success.

The main economic issues under debate between the two parties are: how to handle unemployment (11.2 percent in 2004 down from over 20 percent in 1996) and which party's policy will generate the most new (and permanent rather than temporary) jobs; taxes -- the Socialists wanted a flat tax with more exemptions for the poorest and pensioners versus the third round of income tax cuts proposed by PP; and rapidly spiraling housing costs. Polls indicated that at least 56 percent of Spaniards would like to see a change in government after eight years of Popular Party rule and the firm style of President Jose Maria Aznar.

Before the 11 March 2004 terrorist attacks, the conservative Popular Party and its candidate Mariano Rajoy were slated to win the Spanish elections, but few confidently assessed the PP would win an absolute majority in Parliament. The mood in Popular Party circles, following the PP's unexpected electoral defeat March 14, was a mixture of shock, depression, anger and, now that a few days have passed, resignation,

By 2006, two years after it lost in the dramatic elections of March 14, 2004 -- three days after the March 11 terrorist attacks -- Spain's main opposition party, the Partido Popular (PP) found itself outmaneuvered and either isolated with radical nationalists or forced to collaborate with the Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on the most important issues of Spanish domestic politics. Even when the governing PSOE (Socialist) party was losing ground in opinion polls, the statistics did not reflect any increase in popularity for the PP, only a fall in the government approval rating because of uncertainty about regional questions in Catalonia and the Basque Country.

A combination of leadership and message problems has kept the PP from capturing the imagination of the Spanish electorate, along with a consistent underestimation of the political skill of the Zapatero government.

Many were surprised when Rajoy did not bow out after a second straight electoral loss in 2008. Rajoy owed his longevity as much as anything to the lack of a credible successor within his own party. Would-be challengers such as Esperanza Aguirre, Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, or Valencia Regional President Francisco Camps all have their own drawbacks, and none enjoys the national stature of Rajoy (and both Ruiz-Gallardon and Camps appeared to be backing Rajoy).

After suffering a second straight defeat at the hands of President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, opposition Partido Popular (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy found himself in the midst of a crisis that threatened the future of his party leadership. In the days following the 09 March 2008 general election, Rajoy announced that he would remain the PP leader -- reminding Spanish citizens that Jose Maria Aznar lost two elections to Felipe Gonzalez before finally winning in 1996 -- and received the public support of nearly every senior party official. Rajoy then took steps to soften the party's tone and remake it in his own image, in an attempt to dilute the influence of Aznar. To that end, he eased out Congressional spokesman Eduardo Zaplana and Secretary General Angel Acebes and announced he would be taking the party in a new direction.

When Rajoy was elected in 2011, Spain was paying one percent more than Germany in interest on its debt. He said the deficit is over ten percent of GDP -- twice what it was two years earlier -- and unemployment is nearly 20 percent. He said maintaining social benefits under these circumstances will be difficult and Spain needed reforms.

With an absolute majority in parliament, Rajoy implemented deeply unpopular severe spending cuts and labour law reforms. For the six years preceding his administration, bullfights had been banned from Spanish television due to their brutal nature. A bullfighting enthusiast, Rajoy lifted this ban.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said in April 2012 that his nation's economic plight is one of "extreme difficulty" and that the country may need an international bailout. The Spanish leader told a meeting of his People's Party on Wednesday that those who do not understand the severity of the country's problems are "fooling themselves." He suggested that Spain might need a financial rescue package, following European bailouts already handed to Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Rajoy defended the austerity measures his government has imposed in an effort to cut the government's deficit spending. But the country's borrowing costs have risen since he unilaterally eased the government's deficit target for 2012, in defiance of a European Union mandate.

Mariano Rajoy was sworn in for a second term as Spain's prime minister on 31 October 2016 but his minority administration struggled to govern effectively and heal scars left by 10 months of political deadlock. Rajoy, who had the weakest mandate in Spain's modern history, is working on a new cabinet that must build cross-party support to pass reforms in a hostile parliament. even with Ciudadanos' 32 votes added to the PP's 137, Rajoy lacked a majority in the 350-seat parliament. He faced hardline opposition from anti-austerity Podemos, the third-largest party in the assembly. The Socialists, the second biggest, faced their leaders' decision to permit a Rajoy government after earlier blocking him.

The Spanish parliament voted 01 June 2018 in favor of a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy over a funding scandal. The no-confidence vote came as Rajoy's conservative People's Party (PP) is enmired in a funding scandal that saw 29 people linked to the party, including elected officials, receive heavy sentences while the party itself was fined for operating hidden accounts.

Rajoy's defeat marks the first time a Spanish premier has lost a no-confidence vote since the transition to democracy in Spain after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. Although Rajoy is largely considered to have helped bring Spain out of its recession crisis since he took power in 2011, critics say that the austerity measures he imposed exacerbated inequalities and that he failed to curb the country's high unemployment. His party has also faced continued allegations of corruption over the past years, culminating in the scandal.

Satirists liked to mock his infamous truisms -- Spain "is a great country full of Spanish people" was one such declaration in 2015 -- and while his talent did not lay in speech-making, he often shined in parliament with his witty repartee.

• Property Registrar.
• Vice-Chairman of the Governing Council of Alianza Popular [People's Alliance] in Galicia.
• Chairman of the Local and Provincial Council of Alianza Popular [People's Alliance] in Pontevedra.
• Member of the Permanent Committee of Alianza Popular [People's Alliance].
• Member of the Regional Parliament of Galicia in 1981.
• Director-General for Institutional Relations of the Regional Government of Galicia.
• President of the Provincial Council of Pontevedra (1983-1986).
• Vice-President of the Regional Government of Galicia (1986-1987).
• Deputy General Secretary of the Partido Popular [People's Party] (1990-2003).
• Minister for the Public Administration Services (1996-1999).
• Minister for Education and Culture (1999-2000).
• First Vice-President of the Government and Minister for Home Affairs (2001-2002).
• First Vice-President of the Government, Government Spokesperson and Minister for the Presidency (2002-2003).
• Member of the National Executive Committee of the Partido Popular [People''s Party] since 1989.
• Candidate for the Presidency of the Government in the 2004 and 2008 general elections.
• Trustee of the Foundation for Social Studies and Analysis (FAES).
• Member of Parliament since the 3rd Legislature.
• General Secretary of the Partido Popular [People's Party] between September 2003 and October 2004.
• President of the Partido Popular [People's Party], elected at the 15th National Party Conference of the Partido Popular in October 2004.
• Vice-President of the International Democratic Union (IDU). July 2005.
• Vice-President of the Centrist Democrat International (CDI). January 2006.
• President of the Partido Popular [People's Party], elected at the 16th National Party Conference of the Partido Popular in Valencia in June 2008.
• President of the Government of Spain since 21 December 2011 (Official State Gazette 21 December).
• Re-elected President of the Government on 29 October, sworn in as President of the Government by the King of Spain (Official State Gazette 31 October).