Íñigo Joaquín de la Serna Hernáiz (born 10 January 1971 in

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

) is a Spanish politician and civil engineer. He was the Mayor of Santander between 2007 and 2016 and served as

Minister of Public Works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

from 4 November 2016 to 1 June 2018.

Biography

Although born in

, he has been a resident of Santander during all of his life. An only child, he attended the San Agustín College in the

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

n capital and spend his COU year in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, United States as an exchange student, before joining the University of Cantabria School of Civil Engineering, where he graduated as civil engineer. He worked in the Apia XXI engineering office. His career in politics began in 1999 when he was named chief of the cabinet of the Councilor of Environment of the

Government of Cantabria The Government of Cantabria is one of the statutory institutions that conform the Autonomous Community of Cantabria. It is the superior collegiate body that directs the politics and the Administration of this Spanish autonomous community, and at ...

, José Luis Gil. In 2003 he took the office of the Department of Environment, Water and Beaches in the City Council of Santander. In 2004, he was elected Deputy Secretary of the People's Party of Cantabria, and later contested the municipal elections of 2007. Íñigo de la Serna was elected Mayor of Santander, obtaining 15 of the 27 councilors/aldermans (the PSC-PSOE obtained 7 and the

PRC China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the e ...

the remaining 5). When he was elected, he became the second youngest mayor of a provincial capital of Spain after Agustín Conde (Conde was elected Mayor of Toledo in 1995 with 30 years), since he was only 36 years old. He obtained an absolute majority with 52% of the votes, this was the first time that this had happened. In the municipal elections of 2011, he revalidated an absolute majority, more broadly, obtaining 18 of the 27 councilors (the PSC-PSOE obtained 5 and the

the remaining 4). He became the fourth most voted mayor of Spain obtaining the highest record of his party in the city with 56% of the votes. As mayor, and thanks to the implementation of the European project SmartSantander, he strongly opted to turn Santander into a referent within the so-called

smart cities A smart city is an urban area that uses digital technology to collect data and operate services. Data is collected from citizens, devices, buildings, or cameras. Applications include traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities ...

. In this sense, he advocated from his position as President of the

Council of European Municipalities and Regions The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) is the largest organisation of local and regional governments in Europe. Its members are 60 national associations of towns, municipalities and regions from 41 countries that are part of th ...

(CEMR) to promote technological interoperability between the different cities of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

that would allow the sharing of information and projects in the field of

. In June 2012, he was elected president of the Spanish Network of Smart Cities. In the municipal elections of 2015, he lost the

absolute majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the " Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the set's elements. For example, if a gr ...

and remained with 13 aldermans and the 40% of the votes, the best result in a provincial capital for the PP after the fate suffered by the party across Spain. He was reelected mayor thanks to an agreement with the two aldermans from

Citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...

and that causes all the opposition to vote to its own candidates in the vote of investiture, ruling in minority. The rest of the corporation was made up of 5 PSC-PSOE councilors, 4 from the

Regionalist Party of Cantabria The Regionalist Party of Cantabria (, PRC) is the second-oldest political party in the Spanish Autonomous Community of Cantabria. The PRC originated in the Association in Defense of the Interests of Cantabria (ADIC), founded on 14 May 1976, wi ...

, 1 from Ganemos Santander (regional branch of the national party Podemos), 1 from United Left and 1 independent. From 23 July 2012 to 19 September 2015, he also held the position of President of the

Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) is an association of local governments in Spain (town councils, provincial councils, island councils, island cabildos, etc) for the purpose of representing the interests of local gove ...

(FEMP), following the voluntary resignation of the former president,

Juan Ignacio Zoido Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez (; born 21 January 1957) is a Spanish former judge and politician of the People's Party, who has been serving as Member of the European Parliament since 2019. In Parliament, he has since been serving on the Committee ...

, being unanimously elected by the members belonging to all the political parties that form the Territorial Council of the same. On 19 September 2015, the presidency of the FEMP was left in the hands of the

Socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

Abel Caballero Abel Ramón Caballero Álvarez (born 2 September 1946) is a Spanish professor of Economics and since June 2007, the current mayor of Vigo, representing PSdeG-PSOE. Since 19 September 2015, he has also served as the president of the Spanish Fede ...

. He was at the helm of the Spanish Network of Smart Cities since its foundation in 2012 until May 2016. He has also held the presidency of the

. As mayor he supported the construction of the Botín Center of Art and Culture in a very central zone of the city. after several years of delay. On 4 November 2016, he was appointed

of the

Government of Spain The government of Spain () is the central government which leads the executive branch and the General State Administration of the Kingdom of Spain. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and the Ministers; the prime minister has the ...

. 35 days after losing the

and being mayor of Santander, he supported the creation of a parliamentary commission of investigation on the accident of the Alvia; 180 days later, being minister, he refused to the creation of this commission. After 132 days at the helm of the ministry, he was the third minister to have a Royal Decree-Law rejected by the

Cortes Cortes, Cortés, Cortês, Corts, or Cortès may refer to: People * Cortes (surname), including a list of people with the name ** Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), a Spanish conquistador Places * Cortes, Navarre, a village in the South border of ...

, the first in a normal functioning state of government. After supporting María José Sainz de Buruaga in the party's regional congress of

, the biggest political crisis in the 21st century of the PP of Cantabria took place. He has also been identified as a possible responsible for the taxi/

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...

Cabify Cabify is a platform to facilitate the transport of people and objects. The company operates in Spain and Latin America Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay). Previously, it also operated in Portugal Mexico, and Brazil. Cabify was founded ...

conflict. In August 2017, less than 2 months before the date of the referendum of independence of Catalonia, he announced the presence of the Civil Guard in the security control of the

Barcelona Airport Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within cit ...

after a labor dispute that caused a strike by the security guards.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Serna, Inigo de la 1971 births People's Party (Spain) politicians Living people Mayors of places in Cantabria 21st-century Spanish politicians Public works ministers of Spain