Ana María Botella Serrano (born 23 July 1953) is a Spanish People's Party politician who served as the Mayor of Madrid, the

capital city A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...

of Spain, from the end of 2011 until 2015 and the wife of

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

José María Aznar José María Alfredo Aznar López (; born 25 February 1953) is a Spanish politician who was the prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party (Spain), People's Party (PP), the dominant centre-right political party in Spai ...

. She was the first woman to hold the title of mayor of Madrid.

Early life

Botella was born in

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 ...

on 23 July 1953. She took her primary education at the Colegio Irlandesas Madrid, associated with the

Congregation of Jesus The Congregation of Jesus is one of two congregations of religious sisters founded during the 17th century through the work of the nun Mary Ward, who was dedicated to female education. The other congregation is the Sisters of Loreto, a name the ...

. She then studied law at

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

. After graduating, she passed a public examination to the Corps of Civil Administrators of the State,

Early political career

Botella joined the People's Alliance in 1978. She served for 14 years as civil servant in the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...

, the Civil Governance of Logroño, the Ministry of Public Works, the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

, and the

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

Politics of Madrid

Botella served on the Madrid City Council from 2003 to 2011. During her terms, she served as deputy mayor to Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón and oversaw the Departments of Social Services (2003-2007) and Environment (2007-2011). She was criticized for failure to tackle Madrid's air pollution which frequently exceeded permitted levels while she was responsible for the city's environment. Botella was an outspoken climate change denier. In September 2013, Botella garnered national attention following embarrassing and nonsensical comments made in broken English during Madrid's push to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, which derailed what was otherwise a highly respected bid and turned her into a popular meme. When Ruiz-Gallardón resigned to become the Justice Minister in Prime Minister

Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (, ; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a 2018 vote of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy, vote of no confidence ousted his government. A m ...

's government, Botella became mayor on 27 December 2011. On 9 September 2014, Botella announced that she would not run for re-election in the May 2015 elections.

Personal life

Botella married future Spanish Prime Minister

in 1977. The couple has three children: José María, Ana, and Alonso. Their daughter married businessman Alejandro Agag at the royal site of

El Escorial El Escorial, or the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (), or (), is a historical residence of the king of Spain located in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, up the valley ( road distance) from the town of El Escorial, Madrid, El ...

on 5 September 2002."In pictures: Aznar's daughter marries"
2002 report, BBC Ana Botella has four grandchildren by her daughter.

Electoral history

References

Bibliography

*Botella, Ana. ''Mis ocho años en La Moncloa'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Botella, Ana 1953 births Living people Mayors of Madrid Women mayors of places in Spain Spouses of prime ministers of Spain People's Party (Spain) politicians Spanish Roman Catholics Madrid city councillors (2011–2015) Madrid city councillors (2007–2011) Madrid city councillors (2003–2007) Complutense University of Madrid alumni