Jorge Antonio Azcón Navarro (born 21 November 1973) is a Spanish People's Party (PP) politician who is a city councillor (2000–2007; 2011–) and the mayor (2019–) of

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

Biography

Born in

, 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 oldest universiti ...

, where he also obtained a master's degree in Urban Planning. He then worked for MRA, a business involved in subsidised housing. 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 Zaragoza, which is also t ...

and the region of

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

. When

José Atarés José Atarés Martínez (2 August 1960 – 26 September 2013) was a Spanish People's Party (PP) politician. He was a city councillor (1991–2007) and the mayor of Zaragoza (2000–2003). He was also a senator representing the Province of Zaragoz ...

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 Juan Alberto Belloch (born 1950) is a Spanish judge and socialist politician, who served in different cabinet posts. He served as the mayor of Zaragoza between June 2003 and 13 June 2015. Early life and education Belloch was born in Mora de Ru ...

. In February 2016, when the local party leader Eloy Suárez left the city hall to centre his work on the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...

, the party unanimously chose Azcón to be the new spokesman. In the 2019 Zaragoza election, the

Spanish Socialist Workers' 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 ...

(PSOE) led by

Pilar Alegría María del Pilar Alegría Continente (born 1 November 1977) is a Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) politician who has been minister of Education and Vocational Training since 12 July 2021. Alegría gained a master's degree in primary educ ...

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 "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

. 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, 2012-05-31Originally an init ...

in 2021. In July 2021, Azcón led the city council in displaying a banner with the

rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

and

transgender flag The first transgender flag is a pride flag having five horizontal stripes of three colors—light blue, pink and white. It was designed by American trans woman Monica Helms in 1999 to represent the transgender community, organizations, and indi ...

s from the

city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

balcony. A judge ordered its removal, citing a 2020

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. 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 The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) is a Spanish association of local entities that groups town councils, provincial councils, insular councils and insular cabildos. Approximately 7,331 entities are represented. The fo ...

(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, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Azcón was housebound for two weeks in January 2021 after contracting

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In December that year he was chosen as the PP's lead candidate for the

next Aragonese regional election The 2023 Aragonese regional election was held on Sunday, 28 May 2023, to elect the 11th Cortes of Aragon, Cortes of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon. All 67 seats in the Cortes were up for election. The election ...

, replacing

Luis María Beamonte Luis María Beamonte Mesa (born 10 September 1963) is a Spanish People's Party politician. He is a member of the Cortes of Aragon (2011; 2015–), where he has led his party since 2019. He was previously the mayor of Tarazona (2007–2019) and pr ...

References

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