Ramón Espinar Gallego (born 1954) is a Spanish former politician. A member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) politician, he was the mayor of Leganés in the Community of Madrid, and a member of the Assembly of Madrid from 1983 to 1995, serving as its president from 1983 to 1987. He was the regional minister of culture (1987–1991) and finance (1991–1995). In 1995, he was named an advisor at

Caja Madrid Caja Madrid, formally the Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Madrid, headquartered in Madrid,Inicio
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, and was sentenced to one year in prison in 2017 for his involvement in a credit card scandal.

Biography

Born in Úbeda in the Province of Jaén, Andalusia, Espinar moved to Leganés in the Community of Madrid at the age of 20 in 1975; the commuter town experienced a lot of inwards migration from Andalusia, Extremadura and Castilla–La Mancha at the time. In 1978, he was told by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) that he would be the candidate for mayor in the first democratic elections the following year. He was elected as the youngest mayor in the country, holding 14 seats in the city council, ten more than the second-placed Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD). Espinar's administration set aside space for a university, which was eventually filled by a campus of 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 ...

, and built a hospital. After extending his absolute majority 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 Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

, he was elected to the new Assembly of Madrid in the same year, becoming its first president. In 1987 he was named the region's minister for culture, and four years later its minister of finance, in the governments of President of the Community of Madrid,

Joaquín Leguina Joaquín Leguina Herrán (born 5 May 1941) is a Spanish politician and writer. A member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) he became the first President of the Community of Madrid, serving from 1983 and 1995. He also was Secretary-Gen ...

. Espinar left politics in 1995, being named by the PSOE as an advisor to the

Caja Madrid Caja Madrid, formally the Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Madrid, headquartered in Madrid,Inicio
." C ...

savings bank In February 2017, the Audiencia Nacional sentenced him to a year in prison for his part in the "black cards" scandal, in which he used company credit cards to spend €178,400 on personal spending from 1995 to 2010. Espinar's son,

Ramón Espinar Merino Ramón Espinar Merino (born 1986) is a Spanish politician. A member of the Assembly of Madrid from 2015 to 2019, he led the Podemos (Spanish political party), Podemos party branch in the Community of Madrid between 2016 and 2019. Biography ;E ...

(born 1986), served in the Assembly of Madrid and as a

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

for Podemos from 2015 to 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Espinar Gallego, Ramon 1954 births Living people People from Úbeda People from Leganés Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians Mayors of places in the Community of Madrid Members of the 1st Assembly of Madrid Members of the 2nd Assembly of Madrid Members of the 3rd Assembly of Madrid Presidents of the Assembly of Madrid Spanish politicians convicted of crimes