Magdalena Álvarez

Magdalena Álvarez (2011)

Magdalena Álvarez Arza (born February 15, 1952 in San Fernando , Cádiz province ) is a Spanish politician ( PSOE ) and Vice-President of the European Investment Bank . Before that, she was the Spanish Minister for Infrastructure Promotion from 2004 to 2009 ( Fomento , roughly equivalent to the German Ministry of Transport) under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero .

Professional career

After completing her doctorate at the Complutense University of Madrid , Magdalena Álvarez was a professor of economics at the Spanish State Open University from 1977 to 1990 . From 1981 to 1989 she also taught at the Escuela de Prácticas Jurídicas in Málaga and at the Instituto de Estudios Fiscales .

From 1979 to 1993 she also held various offices in the Spanish Ministry of Finance and Tax Office.

Political career

Álvarez was a non-party member of the Andalusian regional parliament and was appointed Minister for Economy and Finance in the Andalusian regional government by Manuel Chaves in August 1994 . Due to conflicts in Andalusian politics, neither of the two annual budgets it had drawn up was approved by the Andalusian parliament in the first two years. Nevertheless, she was confirmed in office after the regional elections in 1996 and 2000. The focus of her work was the negotiations with the Spanish central government about the regional financing of Andalusia, with Álvarez particularly emphasizing the "historical debt" ( deuda histórica ) of Spain towards its traditionally rural and poor south.

In 2004, Álvarez became a member of the PSOE party executive and moved into the Spanish Congress of Representatives as the top candidate for the province of Malaga in the Spanish parliamentary elections that year . Shortly thereafter, she was appointed Minister of Infrastructure in the first Zapatero cabinet. Her tenure was accompanied by some notable failures, such as the delay in upgrading the high-speed rail line from Madrid to Barcelona . The opposition has therefore repeatedly called for Álvarez to resign. Nevertheless, she was re-elected in the Spanish parliamentary elections in 2008 and appointed by President Zapatero to his second cabinet . It was not until April 7, 2009 that she was replaced by José Blanco López as part of a comprehensive cabinet reshuffle .

In the European elections in Spain in 2009 , which took place a little later , Álvarez came third on the PSOE list and won a seat in the European Parliament . As a member of the European Parliament , she was a member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the Temporary Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis . She resigned from the European Parliament in July 2010 after being appointed Vice-President of the European Investment Bank.

Web links

Commons : Magdalena Álvarez  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Magdalena Álvarez on the homepage of the Spanish Congress of Representatives (in Spanish)
• Entry on Magdalena Álvarez in the database of Members of the European Parliament