Manuela Carmena Castrillo (; born 9 February 1944) is a retired Spanish

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

and

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

who served as Mayor of Madrid from June 2015 to June 2019. She was a member of the

General Council of the Judiciary The General Council of the Judiciary (, CGPJ) is the national council of the judiciary of Spain. It is the constitutional body that governs all the Judiciary of Spain, such as courts, and judges, as it is established by the Spanish Constitut ...

Biography

Early life

She was born on 9 February 1944 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 ...

, in the area near the Dehesa de la Villa. Both sides of her family had a background in small business: her father Carmelo (a native of Toledo) ran a shirt shop at the corner of Gran Vía and Chinchilla Street in central Madrid. Her mother, meanwhile, worked as a cashier. She attended the French School of the Black Ladies. During her time as a student, Carmena served as voluntary worker in a preserves factory run by the Servicio Universitario del Trabajo. After graduating in

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

in 1965 from the

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ), shortened to UV, is a public research university in Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Valencian Community. It is regarded as one of Spain's leading academic i ...

, she became a legal representative of workers and detainees during the

Francoist State Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of History of Spain, Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . ...

and was

co-founder An organizational founder is a person who has undertaken some or all of the formational work needed to create a new organization, whether it is a business, a charitable organization, a governing body, a school, a group of entertainers, or any oth ...

of the labour law office where the 1977 Atocha massacre took place. Carmena, who joined the

Communist Party of Spain The Communist Party of Spain (; PCE) is a communist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is currently part of Sumar. Two of its politicians are Spanish government ministers: Yolanda Díaz (Minister of L ...

(PCE) in 1965, married architect Eduardo Leira in 1967; they have had two children: Eva and Manuel. She ran as a candidate in the PCE list for the 1977 general election in the constituency of

. She had left the party by 1981.

Judicial career

After passing public examinations to become a judge, she started her judicial career in January 1981. As a judge she began an almost solitary fight to prevent

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

in existing courts. In 1986 she received the National Human Rights Award. She was a founding member of the progressive association Judges for Democracy. Judge of Penitentiary Vigilance and head of the Penitentiary Vigilance Court No. 1 of Madrid, she was elected senior judge of Madrid in 1993. She was appointed as member of the

(proposed by United Left) and served from 1996 to 2001.

Activity after retirement

After retiring from the judiciary in 2010, Carmena moved on to become a member of the ''Patronato de la Fundación Alternativas'', a think tank with ties 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), and whose members included the former Socialist prime ministers

Felipe González Felipe González Márquez (; born 5 March 1942) is a retired Spanish politician who was Prime Minister of Spain from 1982 to 1996 and leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party from 1974 to 1997. He is the longest-serving democratically- ...

and

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (; born 4 August 1960) is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Prime Minister of Spain being elected for two terms, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. O ...

. Carmena was Chair-Rapporteur of the

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Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and as such, she has visited

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. It has an area of . Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name refers to its location both near the Equ ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

and

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, among other countries. In September 2011, Carmena was appointed advisor to the Patxi López cabinet of the Basque Government in the area of assistance to victims of police abuse. Carmena Castrillo founded the supportive cooperative "Yayos emprendedores" (literally, "entrepreneur grannies"), which manages a small retail business selling children's games, clothing and shoes made by prisoners at the Alcalá de Guadaira jail in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

Mayor of Madrid

Carmena headed

Ahora Madrid Ahora Madrid () was a citizen platform of popular unity, formed as an ''instrumental party without organic internal life'', in order to stand for the municipal elections of 2015 in the city of Madrid. For this project, '' Ganemos Madrid'', ...

's ticket in the Madrid local election held on 24 May 2015. After Ahora Madrid made a coalition deal with the PSOE, Carmena was elected as Mayor on 13 June 2015, obtaining the votes of 29 out of 57 councillors and thereby winning a narrow majority. Carmena reduced Madrid's municipal debt by €5.6 billion (or 38%) in the first 18 months of her mayorship. In this same time period, Carmena also managed to increase social spending by 26%, which led to an investigation by the opposing People Party's Treasury minister in order to examine Madrid's compliance with Cristóbal Montoro's national spending regulations. This feud between the national Ministry and the municipal Department of Economy and Finance forced Carmena to sack Carlos Sánchez Mato from his position as councillor in December 2017. Also in the first half of her mandate, the

ayuntamiento ''Ayuntamiento'' ()In other languages of Spain: * (). * (). * (). is the general term for the town council, or ''cabildo'', of a municipality or, sometimes, as is often the case in Spain and Latin America, for the municipality itself. is mai ...

organised several public consultations in order to decide on issues, opening up public input on part of the municipal budget as well as on a project for the revitalisation of the Plaza de España. The council's executive board also changed 52 street and place names hanging over from the

Francoist dictatorship Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

which did not comply with the 2007

Law of Historical Memory Law 52/2007, commonly known as Historical Memory Law (Sp: ''Ley de Memoria Histórica''), recognises and broadens "the rights and establishes measures in favour of those who suffered persecution or violence during the Spanish Civil War, civil w ...

. Carmena ran for re-election in the 2019 municipal election, but stated that she would retire from the City Council should she not be re-elected as Mayor. In November 2018, the political platform for

Más Madrid Más Madrid () is a progressive regional political party in Spain co-founded by Manuela Carmena and Iñigo Errejon. Its primary strength is located in the city of Madrid. It promotes green politics, having cooperated with like-minded parties su ...

was unveiled, with Carmena at its centre. In the municipal election held on 26 May 2019, Más Madrid was the most-voted party, obtaining 19 seats in the plenary assembly, but on 15 June 2019, the People's Party's mayoral candidate José Luis Martínez-Almeida, with the support of

Citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...

and Vox, earned the vote of an absolute majority of councillors (29 out of 57 councillors) and was elected as Mayor. On 17 June 2019, Carmena resigned from her councillor seat.

Since June 2019

In January 2021, she complained that, "We are infected with lies regarding reality. It is very difficult to develop correct policies for a deformed reality. One of the issues we must consider is how to combat the systematic lies that deform the social reality."

Electoral history

Books

* * * * — (2020). ''Cuentos para soñar un mundo mejor''. Madrid: Península. * — (2021). ''La joven política''. Madrid: Península.

Decorations

Great Cross of the Order of St. Raymond of Peñafort (2002) * Great Cross of the

Order of the Sun of Peru The Order of the Sun of Peru (Spanish: ''Orden El Sol del Perú''), formerly known as the Order of the Sun, is the highest award bestowed by the nation of Peru to commend notable civil and military merit. The award is the oldest civilian award in ...

(2015) * Great Cross of the

Order of Merit The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order r ...

(2018). Result of searching: "Manuela Carmena Castrillo"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carmena, Manuela 1944 births Living people Madrid city councillors (2015–2019) Madrid city councillors (2019–2023) Más Madrid politicians Mayors of Madrid Members of the General Council of the Judiciary Spanish women judges 20th-century Spanish judges Women mayors of places in Spain 21st-century Spanish judges 20th-century women judges 21st-century women judges