Profiles
Ramón Luis Valcárcel
By m.p. - Mar 5, 2008 - 8:46 AM
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He holds a degree in Philosophy and Literature from Murcia University, is a qualified teacher in History of Art, and has collaborated on a number of investigations and publications on his subject.
His career in politics began when he joined the precursor to the Partido Popular, the Alianza Popular, in 1982, and shortly afterwards, was given responsibility for territorial organisation within the AP’s local branch in Murcia City. He took on similar responsibilities when he became a member of the party’s regional executive in 1983.
He was elected a councillor for Murcia City Hall in the 1987 municipal election, and also that year became Regional Vice-President of the Partido Popular. He acted as spokesperson and president of his party’s municipal grouping in City Hall until 1995.
Valcárcel became President of the Partido Popular in the Murcia Region in November 1991, a position which he still holds today, having been re-elected by each party regional congress which has taken place since that date.
The 1995 regional election put an end to twelve years of Socialist government in the Murcia Region, when Ramón Luis Valcárcel stood as the presidential candidate for the PPRM for the first time. It was also the first time the Partido Popular had held power in the Region, with an absolute majority of eleven seats over the Socialists.
The party dropped its lead over the main opposition party down to eight seats in the 1999 poll, but regained ground in the 2003 election, when they achieved what was at the time the highest number of seats ever held by one party in the regional parliament: 28 seats over the PSRM-PSOE’s 16 and Izquierda Unida’s one.
Ramón Luis Valcárcel consolidated the Partido Popular’s position of power in 2007, when his party increased their majority up to 29 seats. Fifteen went to the Socialists and one to the Izquierda Unida-Los Verdes grouping.
The current legislature will be Valcárcel’s last. He confirmed at the beginning of October 2007 that he will not be standing for re-election as President of the Murcia Region, after what will be, by the end of his fourth mandate, sixteen years in the job.
His party’s leader and the Partido Popular candidate for Prime Minister in the general election which takes place in the Spring of 2008, Mariano Rajoy, said in an interview with journalists some weeks later, however, that he will do everything he can to stop Valcárcel leaving politics.
‘Spain,’ he said, ‘needs politicians who have shown they have the ability to do things well, and to defend the general interest.’
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