National
Maria San Gil says that she will not stand for re-election as leader of the Partido Popular in the Basque Country
By h.b.
May 21, 2008 - 9:04 PM

The head of the Partido Popular in the Basque Country, María San Gil, has announced that she will not be standing for re-election to the post. She made the announcement after meeting in Madrid yesterday morning with the leader of the party, Mariano Rajoy, and told him that she is also to resign from the parliamentary group.
Earlier she had warned that she would be leaving the group if she failed to recover confidence which she said she had lost in the leadership of Mariano Rajoy.

Maria San Gil is considered to be a hardliner in the party, and is unhappy with Mariano Rajoy’s intention to move the right wing party to the centre.

Meanwhile Mariano Rajoy continues to consider that his shadow team in opposition will come out of the party congress planned in Valencia next month. So far the only person named specifically as to be part of his team is the Mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón.

The announcement from María San Gil could indicate that she is planning to say a definitive goodbye to politics. She took a step back from public life in April last year when she announced that she had cancer, but four months later she held a press conference to tell journalists that her cancer was beaten and she was back ‘with a great deal of strength’.