Alejandro Fernández Álvarez (born 30 May 1976) is a Spanish politician and political scientist who has been the leader of the

People's Party of Catalonia The People's Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit Popular de Catalunya, es, Partido Popular de Cataluña, PP or PPC) is a conservative, Christian-democratic political party in Catalonia. It is the Catalan affiliate of the Spanish People's Party an ...

since 2018. He has been a deputy in the

Parliament of Catalonia The Parliament of Catalonia ( ca, Parlament de Catalunya, ; es, Parlamento de Cataluña; oc, Parlament de Catalonha) is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 mem ...

since 2015, having previously been in the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...

since 2011.

Early life

Born in

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; Phoenician: ''Tarqon''; la, Tarraco) is a port city located in northeast Spain on the Costa Daurada by the Mediterranean Sea. Founded before the fifth century BC, it is the capital of the Province of Tarragona, and part of Tar ...

to a lorry driver father and domestic worker mother, Fernández graduated in Political Science and Administration at the

Autonomous University of Barcelona The Autonomous University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; , es, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona; UAB), is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. ...

. He was a professor at

Rovira i Virgili University University of Rovira i Virgili ( ca, Universitat Rovira i Virgili; , es, Universidad Rovira y Virgili; URV) is located in the Catalan cities of Tarragona and Reus, Spain. Its name is in honour of Antoni Rovira i Virgili. The University of Ro ...

in Tarragona, and in 2013 campaigned for it to be renamed "Tarragona University" instead of after the Catalan republican

Antoni Rovira i Virgili Antoni Rovira i Virgili () (26 November 1882 – 5 December 1949) was a Spanish politician and journalist who was president of Catalonia's Parliament in exile after the Spanish Civil War. His term of office lasted from 1940 to 1949. In his honour ...

Political career

He joined the youth division of the People's Party at 14 and was a city councillor in Tarragona for 13 years from 2003, leading the party in the city from 2008. In 2011 he was elected to the

, leaving in 2015 when elected to the

. During his 2011 mayoral campaign, Fernández recorded a jingle to the tune of

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

's "

Alejandro Alejandro is the Spanish form of the name Alexander. Alejandro has multiple variations in different languages, including Aleksander (Czech, Polish), Alexandre ( French), Alexandros (Greek), Alsander (Irish), Alessandro (Italian), Aleksandr (Rus ...

". It was withdrawn after legal threats from

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sony Music Publishing (formerly Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is the largest music publisher in the world, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021. US-based, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is itself owned ...

. In November 2018, he succeeded

Xavier García Albiol Xavier García Albiol (born 8 December 1967) is a Spanish politician and member of the People's Party. He has been the president of the Badalona branch of his party since 1990, and he was the mayor of Badalona between 2011 and 2015, and again ...

as party leader upon the latter's resignation, with 97.1% of the votes. In his campaign for the 2021 Catalan election, Fernández proposed ending Catalonia's separate police and judicial system, ending the region's public-private diplomacy consortium DiploCat ("partisan propaganda with public money"), and ensuring neutrality of

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

Catalunya Ràdio ''Catalunya Ràdio'' () is Catalonia's public radio network. With headquarters in Barcelona, it is part of the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals (CCMA), owned by the Generalitat de Catalunya. Catalunya Ràdio broadcasts exclusively i ...

and universities. Running in the Barcelona constituency instead of his native

, he saw his party's seats fall by one to three; this was their worst result for the Parliament of Catalonia and made them the smallest party within. Fernández remained his party's lead candidate for the 2024 Catalan regional election, more than tripling their votes and quintupling their seats to 15. The PP overtook Vox as the biggest party on the anti-independence right, coming second overall in several major cities and third in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez, Alejandro 1976 births Living people People from Tarragona People's Party (Spain) politicians Leaders of political parties in Spain Autonomous University of Barcelona alumni Academic staff of the University of Rovira i Virgili Spanish political scientists 21st-century Spanish politicians Members of the 10th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 11th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 12th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 13th Parliament of Catalonia