Ione Belarra Urteaga (born 25 September 1987) is a Spanish politician and psychologist from Podemos who currently serves as Minister of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda. She has been her party's leader since June 2021.

Early life and education

Born in

Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

, Belarra graduated in Psychology in 2012 from the

Autonomous University of Madrid The Autonomous University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; UAM), commonly known as simply la Autónoma, is a Spanish public university located in Madrid, Spain. The university was founded in 1968 alongside the Autonomous Universi ...

, where she was a classmate of

Irene Montero Irene María Montero Gil, MP (born 13 February 1988) is a Spanish politician and psychologist, member of the Podemos party. She currently serves as the Minister of Equality of Spain since 13 January 2020. She is the partner of Pablo Iglesia ...

. She earned a master's degree in Education, and both she and Montero left their doctoral programmes because of their political careers. One of Belarra's earliest activist campaigns was against immigrant detention centres.

Political career

Belarra joined Podemos in its founding year, 2014. The following year, she entered its national executive, the Citizens' Council, where she was put in charge of the area of Human Rights, Citizenship and Diversity. She led Podemos's list in the Navarre constituency in the

2015 Spanish general election The 2015 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 20 December 2015, to elect the 11th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate. At exac ...

, being one of two Podemos members elected by the region. From July 2018, she and

Pablo Echenique Pablo Echenique Robba (born 28 August 1978 in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina) is an Argentine-born Spanish physicist and politician. He came to Spain aged 13 to live in Zaragoza. He had Spinal muscular atrophy.

filled in as parliamentary and general spokespeople of Podemos respectively, during Montero and Pablo Iglesias's joint maternity/paternity leave. After the

November 2019 Spanish general election The November 2019 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 10 November 2019, to elect the 14th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 265 seats in the Senate. ...

, Podemos entered government with the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

(PSOE), and Belarra became Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda from January 2020 to March 2021. She then became Minister of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda. After Iglesias's retirement, Belarra was voted secretary general of Podemos with 88.69% of the members' votes in June 2021, while

Yolanda Díaz Yolanda Díaz Pérez (born 6 May 1971) is a Spanish politician and lawyer specialising in labour law, currently serving as Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain, Second Deputy Prime Minister since 2021 and Ministry of Labour (Spain), Minister of ...

succeeded Iglesias as leader of

Unidas Podemos Unidas Podemos (), formerly called Unidos Podemos () and also known in English as United We Can, is a democratic socialist electoral alliance formed by Podemos, United Left, and other left-wing to far-left parties in May to contest the 2016 Spa ...

Animal Welfare Law

In 2022, Belarra introduced legislation to ban the sale of pets in shops, convert zoos into wildlife recovery centres and impose prison sentences for abusers as part of Spain's first animal-rights bill, which notably did not target

bullfighting Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations. There are several variations, including some forms wh ...

. A month later, the PSOE group in the Congress of Deputies tabled an amendment to restrict the scope of the text, excluding animals related to hunting, a decision which was strongly criticised by Unidas Podemos. Despite this disagreement, the two parties voted together in Congress on 6 October to reject the motions to reject the bill tabled by the People's Party (PP), Vox and the

Basque Nationalist Party The Basque Nationalist Party (, EAJ ; es, Partido Nacionalista Vasco, PNV; french: Parti Nationaliste Basque, PNB; EAJ-PNV), officially Basque National Party in English,) was rejected by party members in November 2011. Nonetheless, the party did ...

(PNV).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belarra, Ione 1987 births Living people Autonomous University of Madrid alumni Members of the 11th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 12th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 13th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 14th Congress of Deputies (Spain) People from Pamplona Politicians from Navarre Podemos (Spanish political party) politicians Spanish women psychologists Leaders of political parties in Spain