Ignacio Astarloa Huarte-Mendicoa (

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 ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, 10 September 1955) is a Spanish politician and University Professor who belongs to the People's Party (PP). Married with three children, Astarloa graduated in Law and Economic and Business Sciences. After working as a lawyer, he became Under-Secretary of state for Justice under Angel Acebes in 2000 serving until 2002 when he became Secretary of State for Security. Although the PP lost the 2004 General Election to the

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), he was elected to the

Spanish Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate of Spain, Senate. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has ...

representing Vizcaya Province. For the 2008 election he headed the PP list and was re-elected, although the PP lost one of their two seats at that election. During the campaign, he criticised the rival PSOE stating that negotiations with the armed separatist group

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

and moves towards an independent Basque state were more likely under a PSOE government. After the 2004 election he had been appointed Secretary for Liberty, Security and Justice within the PP. However on 21 June 2008 he resigned his offices within the PP citing dissatisfaction with the leadership of

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 ...

El Pais, 21 June 2008
/ref> but retained his seat in the Congress.

References

Members of the 8th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 9th Congress of Deputies (Spain) 1955 births Living people Politicians from Madrid People's Party (Spain) politicians Members of the 10th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Comillas Pontifical University alumni Academic staff of the Charles III University of Madrid 20th-century Spanish lawyers Interior ministers of Spain Spanish people of Basque descent Secretaries of State of Spain {{BasqueCountry-politician-stub