María San Gil Noain (born 15 January 1965, in

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

) is a Spanish Basque politician. Born in

, San Gil graduated with a degree in Trilingual Biblical Philology from the

Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca The Pontifical University of Salamanca (in Spanish: ''Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca'') is a private Roman Catholic university based in Salamanca, Spain. History This Pontifical University has its origins in the unique University of ...

. In 1991 she began working for the San Sebastián city council, representing the conservative Partido Popular. On January 23, 1995 she witnessed the assassination of her colleague Gregorio Ordóñez by the Basque separatist group

ETA Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

, and thereafter decided that she would spend her political career fighting terrorism. Rising steadily in prominence, in 2003 she became the leader of the Partido Popular's regional representation in the

Basque Country Basque Country may refer to: * Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map) * French Basque Country o ...

. In the regional elections of 2005 she was a candidate for Basque regional president or lehendakari, but lost out to the nationalist candidate

Juan Jose Ibarretxe ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...

of the EAJ-PNV. On April 18, 2007 she announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had already been operated on once. On May 21, 2008 after a meeting with

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 ...

she informed him of her intention to resign from the leadership position in the regional representation of the Partido Popular. San Gil is married and has two children.

References

1965 births 21st-century Spanish politicians 21st-century Spanish women politicians Living people Members of the 7th Basque Parliament Members of the 8th Basque Parliament People's Party (Spain) politicians Recipients of the Order of Constitutional Merit Pontifical University of Salamanca alumni Politicians from San Sebastián Basque women in politics Women members of the Basque Parliament Municipal councillors in the Basque Country (autonomous community) {{BasqueCountry-politician-stub