Dolors Montserrat i Montserrat (born 18 September 1973, in

Sant Sadurní d'Anoia Sant Sadurní d'Anoia is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Alt Penedès in Catalonia, Spain; and the centre of production of a sparkling wine known as '' cava''. It is situated in the north-east of the Penedès Depression at the confluen ...

) is a Spanish lawyer and politician who serves as

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

. Previously, she has served as Minister of Health, Social Services and Equality of Spain from 2016 to 2018, when a vote of no-confidence against

Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a vote of no confidence ousted his government. On 5 June 2018, he announced his resignation as People's Party lead ...

ousted the government. In addition, Montserrat has also been

Member of 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 Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members elect ...

in the

Cortes Generales The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies meets ...

between 2008 and 2019 by

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 ...

. She is the daughter of the businesswoman, and also politician of the People's Party, Dolors Montserrat i Culleré.

Early life and education

Montserrat studied in her hometown, although she finished her pre-university studies in the United States. She later obtained a law degree from the Abat Oliva CEU University in Barcelona and she obtained a master's degree from the School of Law Practice of the Bar Association of Barcelona and since 1997 she has specialized in urban, real estate and

environmental law Environmental law is a collective term encompassing aspects of the law that provide protection to the environment. A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the manage ...

. She also carried out a Community Agrarian Law Program taught by the

University of Ferrara The University of Ferrara ( it, Università degli Studi di Ferrara) is the main university of the city of Ferrara in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. In the years prior to the First World War the University of Ferrara, with more than 5 ...

(Italy), a postgraduate degree in Urban and Real Estate Law from

Pompeu Fabra University Pompeu Fabra University ( ca, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, UPF, ; es, link=no, Universidad Pompeu Fabra) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia in Spain. The university was created by the Autonomous Government of Catalo ...

, a postgraduate course in Mediation and Negotiation from the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...

, a Real Estate Law program and urban planning provided by

ESADE Esade (Escola Superior d'Administració i Direcció d'Empreses) is a prestigious international private educational institution based in Barcelona, Spain. Esade runs two schools of the university, Esade Business School and Esade Law School, as well ...

and a program of management of real estate companies taught by IESE.

Political career

Career in national politics

Montserrat has been regent and spokesperson of the People's Party in

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

since 2007, member of the Executive Committee of the PP of Catalonia and deputy for the

province of Barcelona Barcelona (, ) is a province of eastern Spain, in the center of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The province is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona, and by the Mediterranean Sea. Its area is .Spanish general election of 2008 The 2008 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 9 March 2008, to elect the 9th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 264 seats in the Senate. After four ...

and 2011. In the 10th legislature occupied, between 2011 and 2016, the third vice presidency of the Congress of the Deputies. In May 2012, Montserrat acceded to the Deputy Secretariat for Organization and Social Action of the PP of Catalonia, in the remodeling of the leadership resulting from its 13th Congress. Montserrat has been president of the Board of Young Cofrades of Cava of

. On 4 November 2016, Montserrat swore her office as Minister of Health, Social Services and Equality in the government of

. In 2017, she led the Spanish government’s unsuccessful campaign to host the

European Medicines Agency The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) in charge of the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products. Prior to 2004, it was known as the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products or Euro ...

(EMA) in Barcelona. She was rejected by the Congress of Deputies for her mismanagement of the Ministry on 29 May 2018. On 26 July 2018, was named spokesperson of the PP parliamentary group after Rajoy Government was ousted and

Pablo Casado Pablo Casado Blanco (; born 1 February 1981) is a Spanish former politician. He was a member of the Congress of Deputies representing Madrid until 4 April 2022, having previously represented Ávila between 2011 and 2019. From 2015 to 2018, he al ...

was elected president of the party.

Member of the European Parliament

For the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peopl ...

Montserrat was the head candidate for Spain with the People's Party. As

, she serves as the chair of the

Committee on Petitions The Committee on Petitions (PETI) is a permanent committee of the European Parliament to offer a petition process including a web portal to create and admit petitions. Its current chair, elected on 10 July 2019, is Dolors Montserrat, member of the ...

and member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. In this capacity, she is the Parliament’s rapporteur on the EU’s pharmaceutical strategy. She later also joined the Special Committee on Beating Cancer (2020) and the Special Committee on the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

(2022). Since 2021, she has been part of the Parliament's delegation to the

Conference on the Future of Europe The Conference on the Future of Europe was a proposal of the European Commission and the European Parliament, announced at the end of 2019, with the aim of looking at the medium to long term future of the EU and what reforms should be made to i ...

. In addition to her committee assignments, Montserrat is part of the

MEPs Against Cancer MEPs Against Cancer is a group of 130 Members of the European Parliament who aim to "promote action on cancer as an EU priority and harness European health policy to that end" and to encourage every country to develop a national plan for combati ...

group and the European Parliament Intergroup on Children’s Rights.

Political positions

Montserrat is an outspoken opponent of the Catalan independence movement.David M. Herszenhorn (26 April 2019)
French populists, a former PM and Bunga Bunga — the new faces of the European Parliament
'' Politico Europe''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montserrat, Dolors 1973 births Living people Politicians from Catalonia Women politicians from Catalonia Government ministers of Spain Health ministers of Spain Members of the 12th Congress of Deputies (Spain) MEPs for Spain 2019–2024 21st-century women MEPs for Spain People's Party (Spain) politicians Women members of the Congress of Deputies (Spain)