María Luisa Carcedo Roces (born 30 August 1953) is a Spanish doctor, politician and former senator who belongs to 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). From 2018 to 2020, she served as minister of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare after the resignation of Carmen Montón. Previously, she also served as the first High Commissioner for the Fight against Child Poverty from June to September 2018, a position within the Office of the Prime Minister. In

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, Carcedo was elected for the first time to represent

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

in 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 ...

. She was re-elected two more times, in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. In

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, she ran for a seat at the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, a seat that she got. She resigned from the Senate in 2018 when she was appointed High Commissioner and was elected again for Congress in 2019.

Biography

Carcedo has a degree in medicine and surgery from the

University of Oviedo The University of Oviedo (, Asturian: ''Universidá d'Uviéu'') is a public university in Asturias (Spain). It is the only university in the region. It has three campus and research centres, located in Oviedo, Gijón and Mieres. History Th ...

and a diploma in business medicine. She began her professional activity in Primary Health Care from 1978 to 1984, and since 1995 she has been working at the Natahoyo Health Center in

Gijón Gijón () or () is a city and municipality in north-western Spain. It is the largest city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality by population in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Asturias. It is located on the coa ...

Political career

Related to the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

since young ages, she started to assume public offices in 1984 as director of the local health centres of the Nalon Valley an office where she worked until 1988 when she was appointed Regional Director of Public Health of the Regional Government of Asturias. In the regional elections of 1991 she was elected MP. Between 1991 and 1995 she was the Regional Minister of Environment and Town Planning. She was elected MP again in the regional elections of 1995, 1999 and 2003. Moreover, she was the spokesperson of the

PSOE 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 ...

in the Parliament of Asturias between 1999 and 2003. It was expected she to continue as spokesperson in the period of 2003-2007 but she resigned in 2003 to participate in the 2004 general election where she was elected MP of the

Spanish Parliament The (; ) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house) and the Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies meets in the Palacio de las Cortes. The Senate meets in the Palac ...

. She revalidated its seat in the 2008 general election but she resigned after the Public Administrations Minister, Elena Salgado, offered her to be the President of the Evaluation and Quality Agency, an office that she accepted and occupied until the 2011 general election, revalidating its seat again but losing the office of President of the Agency after the change of government. After the 2014 Extraordinary Congress of the

she became member of the Federal Executive Committee (executive body of the party) as Secretary of Social Welfare, renouncing the Secretary of Economy, Employment and Sustainability that until then she held in the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party Federation of Asturias. In September 2015, she was appointed

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

by the Parliament of Asturias, renouncing to her seat at

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

and she was also appointed Secretary-General of the Socialist Party in Senate. She was appointed senator again after the 2015 general election and the 2016 general election. In February 2016, she was one of the chosen by the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party, Pedro Sánchez to negotiate with other parliamentary groups in an effort to make a new government. After the 2017 Extraordinary Congress of the

and the re-election of Pedro Sánchez as Secretary-General, he appointed Carcedo as Executive Secretary of Health of the party and he returned her the office from which she was stripped apart by the Party's Caretaker Committee, Secretary-General of the party in the Senate. With the successful no-confidence motion against Mariano Rajoy in June 2018, Pedro Sánchez became

Prime Minister of Spain The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government (), is the head of government of Spain. The prime minister nominates the Spanish government departments, ministers and chairs the Council of Ministers (Spain), Council of Mini ...

and gave her his trust again appointing her as High Commissioner for the Fight against Child Poverty, an office that she held until September 2018, when the Health Minister Carmen Montón resigned and she was promoted to that office.

Health Minister

In September 2018, Pedro Sánchez appointed her as Minister of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare 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 ...

after the resignation of her predecessor, Carmen Montón. As well as Montón, Carcedo took a tough position over

homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance that ...

and other

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...

s saying that one of her main compromises was «to fight against pseudosciences, and homeopathy is one of them». A few days after that affirmation, the Health Ministry ordered the withdrawal of thousands of homeopathic products from market, something that hundreds of scientists had asked a few months earlier. Continuing with this position, Minister Carcedo wanted to stop the «intrusiveness of the pseudosciences in the health assistance» by forbidding by law the use of this products in «prioritarian» health centres. This would be done in coordination with the Ministry of Science and the Regional Health Departments. Another objective that Carcedo had was to continue with the objectives marked in her previous job as High Commissioner for the Fight against Child Poverty, saying that her and her team aim was to finish with « child poverty, that they hildrencan live with their families without having to worry if they are going to have enough resources for the most basic». In January 2020, the Prime Minister replaced her with Salvador Illa. She is credited as the originator of the

euthanasia law Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...

passed in Spain in 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carcedo, Maria Luisa 1953 births 20th-century Spanish women politicians 21st-century Spanish women politicians Health ministers of Spain Living people Members of the 13th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the General Junta of the Principality of Asturias Members of the Senate of Spain People from San Martín del Rey Aurelio Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians Women government ministers of Spain Women members of the Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 14th Congress of Deputies (Spain)