Carolina Darias San Sebastián (

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the most populous city in the auto ...

, 25 November 1965) is a Spanish civil servant and

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gove ...

(PSOE) politician who has been serving as minister of Health of Spain since January 2021. Before that, from 2020 to 2021, she served as Minister of Territorial Policy and Civil Service under

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...

. As member of the

(PSOE), in July 2019 Canarian President Ángel Víctor Torres appointed Darias as regional minister of Economy, Knowledge and Employment in the government of the Canary Islands. She also served as President of the Parliament of the Canary Islands from June 2015 to June 2019.

Early life

Born in

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the most populous city in the auto ...

on 25 November 1965, Darias received her law degree from the

University of La Laguna The University of La Laguna (ULL; Spanish: ''Universidad de La Laguna'') is a public research university situated in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, on the island of Tenerife, Spain. It is the oldest university in the Canary Islands. The universi ...

Career

Career in regional politics

A politician from the

, Darias was a member of the city council of

from 1999 to 2004. She served as a government sub-delegate (2004–07) and was elected to the

Parliament of the Canary Islands The Parliament of the Canary Islands is the regional legislature of the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. The Parliament has seventy members and members serve on four-year terms. The parliament is based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, ...

from Las Palmas in 2007. However, she left the position the following year after her appointment as the director of Territory, Town Planning and Housing in the Las Palmas city council. In October 2014, Darias contested the PSOE primary for the post of

President of the Canary Islands The president of the Canary Islands is the head of government of the Canary Islands, one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain, while the monarch Felipe VI remains the head of state as king of Spain (and therefore of the Canary Islands). Lis ...

but lost to Patricia Hernández. After the results of

2015 Canarian regional election The 2015 Canarian regional election was held on Sunday, 24 May 2015, to elect the 9th Parliament of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands. All 60 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with reg ...

were announced PSOE agreed to form a coalition with

Canarian Coalition The Canarian Coalition ( es, Coalición Canaria, CC) is a regionalist, Canarian nationalist political party in Spain operating in the Canary Islands. The party's aim is for greater autonomy for the islands but not independence. It has been label ...

and she was elected Speaker of the Parliament of the Canary Islands even though PSOE had won fewer seats than Canarian Coalition. She is the first woman to hold the position.

Career in national politics

On January 11, 2020, Darias was appointed as Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Function in the Government of Pedro Sánchez was announced. Throughout the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and as the minister responsible for relations between the central government and the different public administrations, Darias accompanied the minister of health,

Salvador Illa Salvador Illa Roca (born 5 May 1966) is a Spanish politician who served as Minister of Health of Spain from 2020 to 2021. He has been the Secretary for Organization of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia since 2016, and the candidate for the p ...

, to all meetings of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System as well as other types of coordination and control meetings in the health field. Due to this, on 26 January 2021 the Prime Minister announced her appointment as Minister of Health, successor to Salvador Illa.

Personal life

On 12 March 2020, it was reported that Darias had been infected by

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

, the virus that caused coronavirus 2020 pandemic. She was the second member of the Spanish government to be infected by the virus, after it was reported that Minister of Equality

Irene Montero Irene María Montero Gil, MP (born 13 February 1988) is a Spanish politician and psychologist, member of the Podemos party. She currently serves as the Minister of Equality of Spain since 13 January 2020. She is the partner of Pablo Iglesia ...

had tested positive for the virus earlier the same day.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darias, Carolina 1965 births Living people Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians People from Las Palmas Spanish women in politics Members of the 9th Parliament of the Canary Islands Presidents of the Parliament of the Canary Islands Health ministers of Spain