Ramón Espinar Merino (born 1986) is a Spanish politician. A member of the

Assembly of Madrid The Assembly of Madrid or Madrid Assembly ( es, Asamblea de Madrid) is the unicameral autonomous legislature of the Autonomous Community of Madrid since the approval of the Madrid Charter of Autonomy in 1983. It is elected every four years durin ...

from 2015 to 2019, he led the Podemos party branch 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 munici ...

between 2016 and 2019.

Biography

;Early life Born on 28 March 1986 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, Espinar is son of Ramón Espinar Gallego,

Spanish Socialist Worker's 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 ...

politician who served as 1st President of the Assembly of Madrid between 1983 and 1987. He studied at the Instituto Ramiro de Maeztu. Graduated in Political Science at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

(UCM) where he also studied a master in Political Analysis, Espinar took part in political organizations such as Juventud Sin Futuro and Contrapoder. He collaborated in ''LaTuerka'' (a TV show presented by

Pablo Iglesias Turrión Pablo Iglesias Turrión (; born 17 October 1978) is a Spanish political scientist and former politician. During his political career, he served as Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain, Second Deputy Prime Minister and as Ministry of Social Aff ...

) and worked as researcher for the UCM. ;Podemos He ran 3rd in the Podemos list for the

2015 Madrilenian regional election The 2015 Madrilenian regional election was held on Sunday, 24 May 2015, to elect the 10th Assembly of the Community of Madrid. All 129 seats in the Assembly were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in twel ...

, and became a member of the 10th term of the

. He also became 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 ...

, designated by the regional legislature. In November 2016 he participated in the party primary election to select their leader in the Community of Madrid. Espinar, considered a member of the ' ''pablista''' faction, came out as the winner over the candidacy of

Rita Maestre Rita Maestre Fernández (born 1988) is a Spanish political scientist and politician. A member of the Madrid City Council since 2015, she served as Spokesperson of the municipal government board presided by Manuela Carmena from 2015 to 2019. Biog ...

, considered an ' ''errejonista''', and became the Secretary-General. After a party crisis in January 2019, following the announcement of

Íñigo Errejón Íñigo Errejón Galván (; born 14 December 1983) is a Spanish political scientist and politician, serving as member of the 14th Congress of Deputies. Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science, he was the secretary for policy and strategy and ...

vowing to run as candidate for the

2019 Madrilenian regional election The 2019 Madrilenian regional election was held on Sunday, 26 May 2019, to elect the 11th Assembly of the Community of Madrid. All 132 seats in the Assembly were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in elev ...

within the

Más Madrid Más Madrid ( en, "More Madrid") is a progressive regional political party in Spain. Its primary strength is located in the city of Madrid. It advocates for participatory democracy and promotes green politics, having cooperated with like-minded ...

platform, Espinar renounced to his parliamentary seat at the regional legislature (and therefore also to his seat as senator) as well as handed in his resignation as leader of Podemos in the Community of Madrid and the rest of his roles at the party, arguing the conditions to carry the Podemos project in Madrid towards where he thought it should be driven towards were not there.

References

Members of the 10th Assembly of Madrid Members of the Senate of Spain Members of the Podemos Parliamentary Group (Assembly of Madrid) 1986 births Living people Complutense University of Madrid alumni {{Madrid-politician-stub