Begoña Villacís Sánchez (born 4 November 1977) is a Spanish lawyer and former politician. A member of the

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; ...

party, she was a councillor in the

City Council of Madrid The City Council of Madrid () is the top-tier administrative and governing body of Madrid, the capital and biggest city of Spain. The city council is composed by three bodies: the mayor, who leads the city council and the executive branch of it; ...

from 2015 to 2023. From 2019 to 2023, she was deputy

mayor of Madrid The Mayor of Madrid presides over the Madrid City Council, the government body of the capital city of Spain. The mayor has the duty of boosting the local policies, it directs the action of the other executive bodies, leads the Local Executive Adm ...

in the government of Mayor

José Luis Martínez-Almeida José Luis Martínez-Almeida Navasqüés (born 17 April 1975) is a Spanish state lawyer and politician. A member of the People's Party (PP), he has been a member of the Madrid City Council since 2015 and has been Mayor of Madrid since 2019. ...

Early life and career

Villacís was born in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

in 1977 and her first studies were at La Salle de San Rafael charter school. She lived in Virginia, U.S. between 1992 and 1995. She obtained her degree on law in 2000 from

CEU San Pablo University CEU San Pablo University () is a private Catholic university located in Madrid, Spain, with campuses in Moncloa (Madrid) and in Montepríncipe ( Alcorcón). It is run by the Centro de Estudios Universitarios (CEU Foundation). It was establis ...

and in 2002 she obtained a master's degree in Tax Advice and Tax Law by the

Comillas Pontifical University Comillas Pontifical University () is a private Catholic Church, Catholic university run by the Spanish Province of the Society of Jesus in Madrid, Madrid, Spain. The university is involved in a number of academic exchange programmes, work practi ...

. She said she decided to be a lawyer while watching the film ''12 Angry Men''. In June 2003, she became responsible for the Tax, Labour and Commercial Law Areas at Legalitas, a law firm in Spain. As an analyst of legal issues, she regularly collaborated in well-known television shows such as ''Amigas y conocidas'', '' El gato al agua'', ''España Directo'' and ''La mañana de La 1''.

Political career

At a television gathering, she met the

Party President

Albert Rivera Alberto Carlos Rivera Díaz (born 15 November 1979), known as Albert Rivera, is a Spanish former politician who was the leader of Citizens from its founding in 2006 until 2019. He was a member of the Parliament of Catalonia (2006–2015) and the ...

. A voter of Citizens, Villacís began to collaborate with the party in September 2014, advising on local taxes, and she finally joined the party in early 2015. In February 2015 she held a meeting with far-right party Vox, where the later party offered her a position in the list for the 2015 regional election to the Assembly of Madrid but she preferred to maintain the commitment to Citizens. That same month, she ran in her party's primary to be candidate for mayor of Madrid. She defeated her opponent Jaime Trabuchelli, with 60% of the votes. The Citizens list for the May 2015 Madrid municipal election headed by Villacís obtained 7 councillors. She could not vote for herself because, at that time, she was a registered resident of

Villanueva del Pardillo Villanueva del Pardillo is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality and Spain, Spanish town of the Community of Madrid, situated 26 kilometers from the capital of Spain and nestled in the natural environment of the Cuenca del Guadarrama. It border ...

. During the 2015–2019 Madrid City Council meeting she acted as Spokesperson of her political group. She renewed her seat for the period 2019–2023 in the 26 May 2019 municipal election. Her list won 11 seats, 4 up from the 7 seats obtained in 2011. Her party and Vox endorsed the People's Party candidate

in the investiture vote that took place during the opening session of the new council on 15 June. As part of the investiture agreement Villacís became First Deputy Mayor. In the

2023 Madrid City Council election The 2023 Madrid City Council election, also the 2023 Madrid municipal election, was held on Sunday, 28 May 2023, to elect the 12th City Council of Madrid, City Council of the Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Madrid. All 57 seats in the Cit ...

, Citizens were wiped out after not meeting the 5% minimum vote share to obtain seats in the council. Villacis subsequently left politics.

Personal life

In June 2024, Villacis's younger brother Borja was fatally shot. He had a long history of involvement in far-right football hooliganism and drug trafficking.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Villacis, Begoña 1977 births 21st-century Spanish women politicians 21st-century Spanish lawyers Spanish women lawyers Citizens (Spanish political party) politicians Madrid city councillors (2015–2019) First deputy mayors of Madrid Madrid city councillors (2019–2023) Living people Comillas Pontifical University alumni