Pedro Castro Vázquez (born 12 February 1945) is a former

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) politician. He was the mayor of

Getafe Getafe () is a municipalities in Spain, municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city c ...

in the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...

from 1983 to 2011, and the president of the

Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) is an association of local governments in Spain (town councils, provincial councils, island councils, island cabildos, etc) for the purpose of representing the interests of local gove ...

(FEMP) from 2007 to 2011.

Biography

Born in

Tomelloso Tomelloso () is a municipality located in the northeast of the province of Ciudad Real, within the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha in Spain. Situated in the geographic center of the natural region of La Mancha and with a population of 36 ...

in the

province of Ciudad Real The province of Ciudad Real () is a province in the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Cuenca, Albacete, Jaén, Córdoba, Badajoz, and Toledo. It is partly located ...

, Castro is married and has three children. He was elected to

City Council in the first democratic local elections in 1979, becoming deputy mayor to , and the councillor responsible for youth. Castro was elected mayor in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

, and served seven terms before being defeated by of the People's Party (PP) in

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 ...

. He went on

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fasting, fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are ...

to persuade

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 ...

Felipe González Felipe González Márquez (; born 5 March 1942) is a retired Spanish politician who was Prime Minister of Spain from 1982 to 1996 and leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party from 1974 to 1997. He is the longest-serving democratically- ...

to build a hospital in Getafe, and in his final years achieved the construction of 10,000 homes, despite the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

. He was known for his use of technology and communications: he had a radio call-in show for over 20 years and was an early user of

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, as well as writing a blog. In 2002, Castro persuaded his former trade union colleague and local construction and nightlife businessman Ángel Torres to purchase the bankrupt football club

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. They compete in La Liga, the top tier of the Football in Spain, Spanish football. The team has pla ...

. Within two years, the team was in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

for the first time, where they became a mainstay. In August 2006, Castro requested that Getafe be the capital of the

instead of the city of

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 ...

, as Madrid is already the national capital. He likened the proposal to

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, simply Santiago, or Compostela, in the province of Province of A Coruña, A Coruña, is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city ...

and Mérida, which are the respective capitals of Galicia and

Extremadura Extremadura ( ; ; ; ; Fala language, Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is a landlocked autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, Spain, Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central- ...

despite not being the largest cities. He mentioned the

Charles III University of Madrid University Charles III of Madrid () (UC3M) is a public university in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Established in 1989, UC3M is an institution with a distinctly international profile. It offers a broad range of master's and bachelor's degree p ...

, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Getafe, Getafe CF and the importance of the local aeronautics industry as reasons for the move. Raúl Callé, mayor of nearby

Leganés Leganés () is a city in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Considered part of the Madrid metropolitan area, it is located about 11 km southwest of the centre of Madrid. , it has a population of 188,425, making it the region's fifth most popu ...

, ridiculed the proposal by suggesting that Castro apply for the capital of

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

. In 2007, Castro was elected president of the

(FEMP) as the PSOE candidate with 15,997 votes, while the PP candidate received 11,310. In December 2008, he publicly asked in a municipal meeting "why are there so many stupid people who still vote for the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

?" The PP threatened to leave FEMP if Castro did not resign. In April 2009, the PP group in the

Senate of Spain The Senate () is the upper house of the , which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid. The presiding officer of the ...

walked out of a parliamentary appearance by Castro.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castro Vazquez, Pedro 1945 births Living people People from the Province of Ciudad Real People from Getafe Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians Mayors of places in the Community of Madrid 20th-century Spanish politicians 21st-century Spanish politicians