Carme Maria Chacón Piqueras (; March 13, 1971April 9, 2017) was a Spanish lawyer, lecturer and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

who was minister of Defence from 2008 to 2011 in the cabinet led by Spanish Prime Minister

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (; born 4 August 1960) is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Prime Minister of Spain being elected for two terms, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. O ...

. A member of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) from 1994, she was elected member of the Parliament of Catalonia and vice president of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, the lower house in the Spanish Parliament. In 2007, she entered the cabinet led by Spanish Prime Minister José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero as minister of Housing. A year later, she became the first woman to take charge of the Spanish Ministry of Defense.

Early life and education

Chacón was born in

Esplugues de Llobregat Esplugues de Llobregat () is a municipality of the Barcelona metropolitan area. Formerly in the ''Barcelonès'', since 1990 it has been part of the Comarques of Catalonia, comarca of Baix Llobregat. During recent decades Esplugues has evolved fro ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, in the region of

Baix Llobregat Baix Llobregat () is a comarca (county) on the coast of Catalonia, Spain. It is located in the Barcelona region and its capital is Sant Feliu de Llobregat. Municipalities Proposed changes It has long been proposed to split the northern part of ...

. She held a bachelor's degree in

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

from the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

, and conducted her postgraduate studies at

Osgoode Hall Law School Osgoode Hall Law School, commonly shortened to Osgoode, is the law school of York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the Law Commission of Ontario, the ''Journal of Law and Social Policy'', and the ''Osgoode Hall Law Journal ...

Kingston University Kingston University London is a Public university, public research university located within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, in South London, South West London, England. Its roots go back to the Kingston Technical Institute, founded ...

and

Laval University Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxe ...

. Besides this, she worked as a lecturer of

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...

at the

University of Girona The University of Girona ( (); ;) is located in the city of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Its real origin dates back to its creation in 1446, but it was reestablished as a new university in 1991. As of 2021, it consists of several campus and buildings ...

between 1994 and 2004.

Political career

Chacón was a member of the

Socialists' Party of Catalonia The Socialists' Party of Catalonia (, PSC–PSOE) is a social democratic political party in Catalonia, Spain, resulting from the merger of three parties: the Socialist Party of Catalonia–Regrouping, led by Josep Pallach i Carolà, the Socia ...

(PSC) and

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * List of political parties in Spain, political party ...

(PSOE) since 1994. She was first elected as a PSOE member of parliament for

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

in the 2000 election. In the same year, she became vice-president of the Spanish

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate of Spain, Senate. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has ...

(

Lower House A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

) in

's legislature and she was later named minister of Housing after

María Antonia Trujillo María Antonia Trujillo Rincón (born 18 December 1960) is a Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) politician. Early life and education Trujillo was born in Peraleda del Zaucejo, Badajoz. She earned a bachelor's and doctor's degree in law fr ...

, before becoming minister of Defence in April 2008.

Member of Parliament

Her parliamentary career started after the general elections of 2000 when she won a seat for the province of Barcelona and went on to be re-elected as such.

Minister of Housing

Whilst José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's term, Carme replaced María Antonia Trujillo as minister of Housing. When already in charge, she had to face the Spanish real estate bubble.

Minister of Defence

April 14, 2008, Chacón was named minister of Defence. She became the first female minister of Defence in Spain, which, together with the fact that she was seven months pregnant at the time, was considered a significant development by the press. Interior Minister

Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba (; 28 July 1951 – 10 May 2019) was a Spanish statesman, politician and chemist who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Spain from 2010 to 2011, and previously as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993, as Minister of ...

temporarily took over the defense portfolio when Chacón gave birth. Shortly after she chose to live in the Ministry's residence, which has its own kindergarten, so as not to waste time travelling between her home and her workplace. That year surveys results points to her as the most influential minister of Mr Zapatero's cabinet. In 2009, Carme announced the controversial withdrawal of Spanish troops set in Kosovo due to its unrecognizable independence proclamation for the country. Despite the strong opposition of the US government, the Spanish cabinet agreed with the NATO allies the gradual withdrawal of these troops. In the same year, with the growth of piracy in Somali waters, Carme had to deal with the capture of Alakrana, a Basque trawler. A year after, she justified the delivery of new troops to Afghanistan as she proclaimed there was light at the end of the tunnel. Months later, she travelled to Haiti to decorate dead Spanish soldiers on a helicopter crash and visit those deployed due to an earthquake. Chacon herat spanish army2

At the NATO summit in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

in 2010, she informed that the Spanish Armed Forces would start the transference of two Afghan provinces under their control in 2011, three years before the established date by the Alliance for the retreat of the troops. As a minister, the country's Emergency State of the democracy was decreed for the air traffic controllers' crisis in 2010. She also chaired the meetings of the EU defence ministers while Spain held the European Union's six-month rotating

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...

. During this time, she led the negotiations with

EADS Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate defence and space and helicopter divisions. Airbus has long been th ...

about €3.5 billion ($4.7 billion) extra funding for the

Airbus A400M Atlas The Airbus A400M AtlasNamed after the Greek mythological figure. is a European four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. It was designed by Airbus Military, now Airbus Defence and Space, as a tactical airlifter with strategic capa ...

military transport. In 2011, the Congreso de los Diputados, the lower house in the Spanish Parliament, adopted a law for the rights and duties of the soldiers (also known as ''Chacon law''). This law allows the soldiers to have an associative activity and creates a committee or ''Junta de Personal'' acting as a link between the Ministry and the troops.

38th Federal Congress of PSOE

After Zapatero announced he was not going to run in the

2012 elections * 2012 United Nations Security Council election Africa Egypt * 2012 Egyptian presidential election Mali * 2012 Malian presidential election * 2012 Malian parliamentary election Senegal * 2012 Senegalese presidential election * 2012 Senegalese p ...

, Chacón was expected to run for her party's leadership during autumn 2011. However, after the failure of the PSOE in 2011 local elections, she announced that she was withdrawing from the race. The general election was held early in November 2011, in which Zapatero's government was defeated by the People's Party. She left her post and was replaced by new defence minister,

Pedro Morenés Pedro Morenés y Álvarez de Eulate, (born 17 September 1948) is a Spanish politician who was minister of defence and Ambassador of Spain to the United States of America. Prior to his appointment as minister, he was president of Real Club de la ...

. In January 2012 she announced her intention to opt for the general secretary of PSOE. According to Chacón, her goal was to "lead a new project" and "raise" the party. However, during the celebration of the 38th Federal Congress of PSOE, Chacón lost against

487 to 465 votes.

PSOE's Secretary for International Relations

Since PSOE's Extraordinary Congress, celebrated in July 2014, Chacón handled the Socialist party's international relations. When Rubalcaba later announced his resignation after his party's dismal showing in the 2014 European elections, Chacón was widely seen as one of the frontrunners for his replacement, but did not run. She left politics in 2016 to practice law. She was also a member of the

European Council on Foreign Relations The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a pan-European think tank with offices in seven European capitals. Launched in October 2007, it conducts research on European foreign and security policy and provides a meeting space for decis ...

Personal life

From 2007 to 2016 she was married to Miguel Barroso Ayats, a Spanish journalist, father of her son, also named Miguel. Chacón was found dead at her home on April 9, 2017, aged 46, due to a

congenital heart defect A congenital heart defect (CHD), also known as a congenital heart anomaly, congenital cardiovascular malformation, and congenital heart disease, is a defect in the structure of the heart or great vessels that is present at birth. A congenital h ...

. Chacón suffered from

dextrocardia Dextrocardia () is a rare congenital condition in which the apex of the heart is located on the right side of the body, rather than the more typical placement towards the left. There are two main types of dextrocardia: dextrocardia of embryonic ...

and an

atrioventricular block Atrioventricular block (AV block) is a type of heart block that occurs when the electrical signal traveling from the atria, or the upper chambers of the heart, to ventricles, or the lower chambers of the heart, is impaired. Normally, the sinoatr ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chacon, Carme 1971 births 2017 deaths Politicians from Catalonia Women politicians from Catalonia Members of the 7th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 8th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 9th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Female defence ministers Women government ministers of Spain Ministers of defence of Spain Housing ministers of Spain York University alumni Université Laval alumni People from Esplugues de Llobregat 20th-century Spanish women politicians 21st-century Spanish women politicians