Santiago Cervera Soto (

Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, 27 March 1965) is a Spanish former politician who belonged to the People's Party (PP) of

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

. Divorced, Cervera began his political career in 1988 when he was elected to Pamplona council for the

Navarrese People's Union The Navarrese People's Union ( es, Unión del Pueblo Navarro), abbreviated to UPN, is a regional conservative political party in Navarre, Spain. Until 2008, it was a fraternal party of the People's Party (PP), acting as the latter's Navarrese bran ...

(

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

: ''Unión del Pueblo Navarro''). This party, abbreviated to UPN, is a right wing regional party which formed an electoral alliance with the larger PP in 1991. At the time of his election, Cervera was still studying medicine in the

University of Pamplona The University of Pamplona ( es, Universidad de Pamplona), is a public, departmental, coeducational research university based primarily in the city of Pamplona, Norte de Santander, Colombia. The university also has two satellite campuses in the ...

. He remained a councillor until 1996. In 1993 he entered national politics when he was elected to the

Spanish Senate The Senate ( es, Senado) is the upper house of the Cortes Generales, which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid. Th ...

representing Navarre. He served one term in the Senate and at the 1996 General Election he was placed third on the UPN list for the

Spanish Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members ele ...

, missing out on the final seat by just 170 votes. In 1996 he was appointed Health Minister in the regional administration of Navarra, serving until 2003. In September 2007 he accepted an offer to head the UPN list for the 2008 General election and was returned as MP for Navarra Province. In November 2008, following the PP decision to end their alliance with the UPN, Cervera announced his resignation from the UPN and announced that he would sit in future as a PP deputy. On 9 December 2012 he was arrested on suspicion of involvement in attempted

blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to f ...

of the President of

Caja Navarra Caja de Ahorros de Navarra or Caja Navarra or CAN was a medium-sized savings bank based in the Navarre province of northern Spain with headquarters in Pamplona. The financial institution broke up in 2012 among allegations of irregularities and fai ...

(CAN), José Antonio Asiaín. On indictment, he resigned from Congress without waiting for the Supreme Court decision and ceased to be a member of the PP. He was acquitted of the charges in June 2015, insisting that he had been the victim of

entrapment Entrapment is a practice in which a law enforcement agent or agent of the state induces a person to commit a "crime" that the person would have otherwise been unlikely or unwilling to commit.''Sloane'' (1990) 49 A Crim R 270. See also agent prov ...

References

External links

Interview in Diario de Navarra, 23 May 2002Biography at Spanish Congress website
Members of the Senate of Spain Members of the 9th Congress of Deputies (Spain) 1965 births Living people People from Pamplona People's Party (Spain) politicians {{Navarre-politician-stub