Jaime Mayor Oreja

Jaime Mayor Oreja (born July 12, 1951 in San Sebastián) is a Spanish politician who served as Interior Minister in the People's Party government of José María Aznar before resigning in February 2000 to stand for Basque President on May 13, 2000, a post he failed to win. He is known for his strongly anti-ETA views.

He graduated in agronomic engineering. In 1977 he joined the Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD). On March 9, 1980 he was elected Member of the Basque Parliament. On July 30, 1982 he was appointed as the Government's Delegate in the Basque Country by the then President Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo. On October 16 a grenade was unsuccessfully thrown against his office window, and he was not hurt. On December 29 the new Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) government of Felipe González removed him from office. In February 1983 he left the UCD and joined Oscar Alzaga's Democratic Popular Party. On February 26, 1984 he stood for the Basque President for the Democratic Coalition, but failed to win. The coalition collapsed after the general elections of June 1986. He then tried to create another party within the Basque Country but was unable to generate enough interest until in March 1987 he founded a new party, Union of the Basque People (UPV). In 1989 he joined the newly formed People's Party and was elected Deputy in the Congress of Deputies for Vizcaya. At the tenth Party Congress on March 31, 1990 he was elected to the National Executive of the People's Party as the president of the Basque section. After the Peoples's party victory in the 1996 General Elections he was sworn in as Minister of the Interior on May 6 1996 along with the other members of the new PP government, a post in which he remained until April 2001. In May 2001 he unsuccessfully ran for the Basque presidency again, coming second against incumbent Juan Jose Ibarretxe, and since then he has been the People's Party parliamentary leader in the Basque Parliament. In April 2004 he was chosen to lead the Peoples party list for the 2004 European Parliament Election and was elected.

Education

* 1999: Member of the National Executive Committee of the PP
* Former President and spokesman of the Grupo Popular in the Basque Regional Parliament
* Vice-Secretary-General of the PP (since 1996) and Honorary President of the PP in the Basque Country
* 1980: Minister for Tourism in the Pre-autonomous Government of the Basque Country
* Member for Guipúzcoa
* 1982: Government Delegate in the Basque Country

Career

* 1984-1986: President and spokesman of the Coalición Popular in the Basque Regional Parliament
* 1980: Elected autonomous Member of parliament within the UCD
* 2001-2004: President of the Grupo Parlamentario Popular in the Basque Regional Parliament
* 1989: Member of the Cortes for Vizcaya
* national member of parliament for Álava from 1979-1982 for the UCD and from 1989 to 2004 for the PP
* from 1996-2001: Minister of the Interior
* Head of the Spanish Delegation to the EPP-ED Group

"See also:" European Parliament election, 2004 (Spain)

External links

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* [http://www.ppvizcaya.com/pages/jaime.html Biography in Spanish]