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Jorge Antonio Azcón Navarro (born 21 November 1973) is a Spanish politician, serving as the President of the Government of Aragon since 2023. He is the president of the
People's Party of Aragon The People's Party of Aragon (, PP) is the regional section of the People's Party of Spain (PP) in Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kin ...
. He was also a city councillor (2000–2007; 2011–2023) and the mayor (2019–2023) of
Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...
.


Early and personal life

Born in
Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...
, Azcón is the youngest of five siblings. The eldest, Quino, was his hero and died of an illness. As of 2023, Azcón is married and has two children. His father
Julio Julio is the Spanish equivalent of the month July and may refer to: *Julio (given name) * Julio (surname) * Júlio de Castilhos, a municipality of the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * ''Julio'' (album), a 1983 compilation al ...
(1931–2022) played football for
Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...
in the 1950s and later set up a construction business. Azcón graduated in Law from the
University of Zaragoza The University of Zaragoza, sometimes referred to as Saragossa University () is a public university with teaching campuses and research centres spread over the three provinces of Aragon (Spain). Founded in 1542, it is one of the List of oldest u ...
, where he also obtained a master's degree in Urban Planning. He then worked for MRA, a business involved in subsidised housing.


Political career


Early local career (2000–2019)

Azcón joined the People's Party in 1993. He was the leader of the New Generations of the People's Party in the
Province of Zaragoza Zaragoza (), also called Saragossa in English,''Encyclopædia Britannica''Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)/ref> is a province of northern Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Aragon. Its capital is the city of Zaragoza, whic ...
and the region of
Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...
. In 2000, Luisa Fernanda Rudi resigned as mayor of Zaragoza to be President of the Congress of Deputies, and she was succeeded by José Atarés, who brought Azcón into his cabinet. When Atarés was mayor from 2000 to 2003, Azcón was the councillor in charge of young people, and subsequently he was the party's assistant spokesman when they were in opposition to Juan Alberto Belloch. Before the 2003 Zaragoza City Council election, Atarés sent Azcón, who was not yet 30, to debate on television against Belloch. Ahead of the 2007 Zaragoza City Council election, new lead candidate removed Azcón and two other serving councillors from his list. Azcón returned to working at MRA. Azcón returned to politics in July 2010, when Luisa Fernanda Rudi, president of the
People's Party of Aragon The People's Party of Aragon (, PP) is the regional section of the People's Party of Spain (PP) in Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kin ...
, named him as one of four coordinators of the party in Zaragoza. For the 2011 Zaragoza City Council election, he was fifth on the PP list led by Eloy Suárez. Four years later, he was second on the list. In February 2016, when Suárez left the city hall to centre his work on the
Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate of Spain, Senate. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has ...
, the party unanimously chose Azcón to be the new spokesman.


Mayor of Zaragoza (2019–2023)

In the 2019 Zaragoza election, the
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * List of political parties in Spain, political party ...
(PSOE) led by Pilar Alegría was the party that obtained the most seats, though the People's Party could gain the majority in alliance with fellow centre-right party
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; ...
. With the votes of his party (8), Citizens (6) and Vox (2) he was invested as the city's first non-left-wing mayor in 16 years. Among Azcón's projects for Zaragoza is "El Bosque de los Zaragozanos", a plan to create a forest of 700,000 trees. The project received €400,000 from energy company
Repsol Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31
Originally an init ...
in 2021. In July 2021, Azcón led the city council in displaying a banner with the
rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...
and
transgender flag The transgender flag, also called the transgender pride flag, is used by people, organizations and communities to represent LGBT pride, pride, diversity, Transgenderism (social movement), rights and/or Transgender Day of Remembrance, remembran ...
s from the
city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...
balcony. A judge ordered its removal, citing a 2020
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
judgement that public buildings cannot fly unofficial flags at any time, for reasons of neutrality. In August 2021, as spokesman of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), Azcón led several PP mayors in criticising the PSOE-led national government whom he accused of lying over investment in municipalities during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.


President of the Government of Aragon (2023–)

Azcón was housebound for two weeks in January 2021 after contracting
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
. In December that year he was chosen as the PP's lead candidate for the 2023 Aragonese regional election, replacing Luis María Beamonte. He led the party to first place, up 12 seats to 28. After being sworn in as President he formed the Azcón government, in coalition with the seven deputies from Vox and the one from the Aragonese Party (PAR). The coalition between Vox and PP was signed with 80 points, including removing "ideology" from education, repealing the regional Historical Memory Law and modifying the regional law on transgender rights, combating violence within the family and against women, and reversing depopulation. In July 2024, Vox pulled out of the government, due to party leader and regional vice president Alejandro Nolasco disagreeing with the accommodation of unaccompanied migrant children (known in Spain by the acronym ''mena''; ). Azcón said that he would not call a snap election and would instead govern in a PP-only
minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azcon, Jorge 1973 births Living people Politicians from Aragon Politicians from Zaragoza University of Zaragoza alumni Mayors of Zaragoza Presidents of the Government of Aragon People's Party (Spain) politicians 21st-century Spanish politicians