The president of the Community of Madrid is the highest-ranking officer of the Autonomous Community of Madrid and the head of the

executive branch The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a state. In political systems ...

. The office is currently held by

Isabel Díaz Ayuso Isabel Natividad Díaz Ayuso (; born 17 October 1978) is a Spanish politician and journalist serving as the president of the Community of Madrid since 2019. She is the president of the People's Party of Madrid. A member of the People's Party ...

of the People's Party.

Origins and election

In the process of the democracy restoration in Spain between 1975–1978, the nationalist and regionalist parties pressed to grant

home rule Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wi ...

to parts of Spain. Finally, the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...

stated that any province or group of provinces could form an

autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...

and thus be granted partial home rule. The Autonomous Community of Madrid (Spanish ''Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid'') was created in 1982, and since then regional elections are held every 4 years. The citizens of the

Autonomous Communities of Spain eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administr ...

do not elect a person for

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by ...

of their community: but rather they elect the regional legislature, and that legislature elects the regional president. A candidate needs a

majority A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-WebsterSocialist Party (PSOE) and the United Left (IU). In Madrid, such a coalition was formed in the 2nd term, in which the incumbent Socialist

Joaquín Leguina Joaquín Leguina Herrán (born 5 May 1941) is a Spanish politician and writer. A member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) he became the first President of the Community of Madrid, serving from 1983 and 1995. He also was Secretary-Ge ...

obtained the most vote but not a majority,In fact, even the PSOE-IU coalition was in the minority (47 seats) against the centre-right parties PP and CDS (49), which however could not reach an agreement to rule. Once they did, a situation similar to the 6th term scandal arose, depriving those parties of the majority and allowing President Leguina to continue his minority government. once more in the 3rd term, allowing him to remain in office even after having obtained fewer votes than the People's Party (PP), and once more in the 6th term, by the PSOE candidate Rafael Simancas. However, this last coalition ultimately failed due to the dissidence of two PSOE Assembly Members, which denounced the pact with IU as being too wide and unrepresentative of the people's will due to the planned power balance. Elections were repeated after a few weeks and Partido Popular won, then by absolute majority. Since then, the People's Party victories by absolute majority were repeated in 2007 and 2011's regional elections. After the resignation of President

Esperanza Aguirre Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma (; born 3 January 1952) is a Spanish politician. As member of the People's Party (PP), she served as President of the Senate between 1999 and 2002 (becoming the first female politician to have held the post), a ...

, nominally due to personal matters in late 2012, her deputy president Ignacio González held the post. The People's Party obtained the most votes in 2015 but lost its absolute majority. Its candidate

Cristina Cifuentes María Cristina Cifuentes Cuencas (born 1 July 1964) is a former Spanish politician from the People's Party. She was the President of the Community of Madrid from 24 June 2015 to her 25 April 2018 resignation. From 16 January 2012 to 13 April 2 ...

was invested president after an agreement with

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 ...

. She was replaced by her deputy

Ángel Garrido Ángel Garrido García (born 7 April 1964) is a Spanish politician who served as President of the Community of Madrid between April 2018 and April 2019. He was a member of the People's Party until 24 April 2019, only four days ahead of the 20 ...

when she resigned after evidence of both a fake master's degree and petty shoplifting came out.

Origins and election

List of officeholders

Timeline

References