Pedro Castro Vázquez (born 12 February 1945) is a former

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 gove ...

(PSOE) politician. He was the mayor of

Getafe Getafe () is a municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city centre, within a flat ar ...

in the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; es, Comunidad de Madrid ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. It is located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, and of the Central Plateau (''Meseta Central''). Its capital and largest munic ...

from 1983 to 2011, and the president of the

Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) is a Spanish association of local entities that groups town councils, provincial councils, insular councils and insular cabildos. Approximately 7,331 entities are represented. The fo ...

(FEMP) from 2007 to 2011.

Biography

Born in

Tomelloso Tomelloso () is a municipality in the province of Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It has a population of 33,548 (2005). Main sights *Posada de los Portales (late 17th century) *Town Hall, rebuilt in 1904 *Church of the ''Asunción de Nues ...

in the province of Ciudad Real, Castro is married and has three children. He was elected to

City Council in the first democratic local elections in 1979, becoming deputy mayor to , and the councillor responsible for youth. Castro was elected mayor in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

, and served seven terms before being defeated by of the People's Party (PP) in 2011. He went on

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

to persuade

prime minister of Spain The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government ( es, link=no, Presidente del Gobierno), is the head of government of Spain. The office was established in its current form by the Constitution of Spain, Constitution of 1978 a ...

Felipe González Felipe González Márquez (; born 5 March 1942) is a Spanish lawyer, professor, and politician, who was the Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from 1974 to 1997, and the 3rd Prime Minister of Spain since the ...

to build a hospital in Getafe, and in his final years achieved the construction of 10,000 homes, despite the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

. He was known for his use of technology and communications: he had a radio call-in show for over 20 years and was an early user of

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, as well as writing a blog. In 2002, Castro persuaded his former trade union colleague and local construction and nightlife businessman Ángel Torres to purchase the bankrupt football club Getafe CF. Within two years, the team was in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

for the first time, where they remained a mainstay. In August 2006, Castro requested that Getafe be the capital of the

instead of the city of

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, as Madrid is already the national capital. He likened the proposal to

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...

and Mérida, the respective capitals of Galicia and

Extremadura Extremadura (; ext, Estremaúra; pt, Estremadura; Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is an autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, it ...

despite not being the largest cities. He mentioned the

Charles III University of Madrid University Charles III of Madrid ( es, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) (UC3M) is a public university in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Established in 1989, UC3M is an institution with a distinctly international profile. It offers a broad rang ...

, the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Getafe The Diocese of Getafe ( la, Xetafen(sis)) is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in Spain, part of the Archdiocese of Madrid. The seat is in the city of Getafe, in the Getafe Cathedral. It was established on July 23, 1991, from the Rom ...

, the

football team Getafe CF and the importance of the local aeronautics industry as reasons for the move. Raúl Callé, mayor of nearby

Leganés Leganés () is a city in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Considered part of the Madrid metropolitan area, it is located about 11 km southwest of the centre of Madrid. , it has a population of 188,425, making it the region's fifth most popul ...

, ridiculed the proposal by suggesting that Castro apply for the capital of

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...

. In 2007, Castro was elected president of the

(FEMP) as the PSOE candidate with 15,997 votes, while the PP candidate received 11,310. In December 2008, he publicly asked in a municipal meeting "why are there so many stupid people who still vote for the

right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...

?" The PP threatened to leave FEMP if Castro did not resign. In April 2009, the PP group in the Senate of Spain walked out of a parliamentary appearance by Castro.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castro Vazquez, Pedro 1945 births Living people People from the Province of Ciudad Real People from Getafe Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians Mayors of places in the Community of Madrid 20th-century Spanish politicians 21st-century Spanish politicians