María Dolores Cospedal García (born 13 December 1965) is a Spanish politician. A member of the People's Party (PP), she served as President of Castile-La Mancha from 2011 to 2015 and as

Minister of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

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 ...

from 2016 to 2018. She also was the PP's Secretary-General, second to party president

Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (, ; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a 2018 vote of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy, vote of no confidence ousted his government. A m ...

, from 2008 to 2018.

Biography

Early life

Born on 13 December 1965 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 ...

, Cospedal was however chiefly raised in Albacete, studying in the later city's ''Colegio La Anunciata de Nuestra Señora del Rosario'' and in the Sabuco High School. She moved to Madrid to go to college and, after earning a licentiate degree in Law at the CEU San Pablo University, she passed the competitive public examinations to join the State Lawyers Corps in 1991, serving in this body of top civil servants until 1996. Cospedal married aristocrat José Félix Valdivieso-González y Bravo de la Laguna in 1995; the marriage ended three years later, in 1998, when it was nullified by the Church. At a certain point she started calling herself "de Cospedal" in public which sounded more aristocratic but more recently she reverted to plain "Cospedal". She affiliated to the People's Party (PP) in 1999. Following the 2000 general election, she was appointed to the post of Under-Secretary of State for Public Administrations and Territorial Policy. After roughly 2 years in office, she was appointed Secretary of State of Security in the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...

, then led by Ángel Acebes. In December 2004, Esperanza Aguirre the president of the Madrid region, appointed Cospedal as the new minister for Transports and Infrastructures in the Regional Government of the Community of Madrid in replacement of Francisco Granados.

Regional president of Castilla–La Mancha

She was chosen as the People's Party (PP) candidate to the presidency of the

autonomous community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

of Castile-La Mancha vis-à-vis the 2011 regional election. The PP list commanded a qualified majority of seats in the election, with the outcome of the investiture the first PP president in the region, after 28 years of PSOE governments. With Cospedal repeating as prospective PP candidate for the regional premiership in the context of the 2015 regional election, the PP, despite winning the most votes at the election, failed to attain an absolute majority of seats and PSOE's Emiliano García-Page became President of Castile-La Mancha following an investiture agreement with Podemos.

Return to national politics

Elected member of the brief 11th Congress of Deputies in the December 2015 general election in representation of Toledo, she chaired the newly created Joint Congress-Senate Committee on National Security from 24 February 2016 to 3 May 2016. She renovated her seat at the June 2016 general election, and, on 3 November 2016, Cospedal was appointed Minister of Defense by PM

, an office she held until June 2018, when a vote of no-confidence ousted the government.

Failed bid to party leadership

After the announcement of Mariano Rajoy stating his resignation to party leadership, Cospedal contested as candidate to the July 2018 party vote among affiliates to determine the new party leader (or failing any candidate to command a qualified majority, the 2 candidates to stand in a run-off voted among party delegates). Her opponents were former Deputy PM and staunch rival Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, PP's Vice-Secretary for Communication Pablo Casado, former foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo, MP José Ramón García-Hernández and grassroot member Elio Cabanes. Cospedal was left out of the race as she commanded the 3rd position in number of votes in the primary election (25,9%) after Sáenz de Santamaría and Casado. Shortly before the runoff among party delegates between Casado and Sáenz de Santamaría, Cospedal publicly declared that she thought that "Pablo Casado could be magnificent option (as party leader)".

Secondary role in the PP

Following her exit from the cabinet she also served as Chairwoman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Congress of Deputies from 13 September 2018 to 14 November 2018, when she resigned to her seat.

Return to civil service

Following her abrupt exit from politics after the "Villarejo Scandal", Cospedal asked for re-incorporation to her career as State Lawyer on 3 January 2019, and soon after she started to work for the Chamber for Contentious Administrative proceedings of the

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 ...

, also reportedly assuming later some additional work in the Chamber of Military proceedings of the Supreme Court. On 24 March 2020 it was reported that she tested positive for

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 ...

during

COVID-19 pandemic in Spain The COVID-19 pandemic in Spain has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Spain on 31 January 2020, when a German tourist tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in La Gomera, Canary Island ...

, together with her husband, but not in a serious condition.

Other activities

* Elcano Royal Institute for International and Strategic Studies, Member of the Board of TrusteesBoard of Trustees
Elcano Royal Institute for International and Strategic Studies.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Cospedal, Maria Dolores 1965 births Female defence ministers Government ministers of the Community of Madrid Living people Members of the 11th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 12th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 8th Cortes of Castilla–La Mancha Members of the 9th Cortes of Castilla–La Mancha Members of the Cortes of Castilla–La Mancha from Toledo Members of the State Lawyers Corps People's Party (Spain) politicians Politicians from Madrid Presidents of Castilla–La Mancha Ministers of defence of Spain Women government ministers of Spain Women members of the Congress of Deputies (Spain) Women presidents of the autonomous communities of Spain