Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón (born December 11, 1958) is a Spanish politician and currently mayor of Madrid. A stalwart of the Partido Popular (People's Party, Spain's national center-right party), he has previously been a leading figure in various local and national legislative bodies.

Ruiz-Gallardón was born in Madrid. His father, José María Ruiz-Gallardón , was a member of the directorate of the Alianza Popular (AP, "People's Alliance"), precursor to the present-day Partido Popular. He attended secondary school in Madrid at the Jesuit Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Recuerdo, where he was an outstanding student, and then studied law at the Colegio Mayor San Pablo CEU of the Universidad Complutense. He graduated at the age of 21, after following a standard five-year law curriculum.

As a lawyer, Ruiz-Gallardón sat for exams to begin a career as a prosecutor at the age of 23. He attained the position, ranking second in the XXVIII Promoción. It is said, perhaps incorrectly, that Ruiz-Gallardón believed that he deserved the number one spot and briefly attempted to claim it. In the end, he accepted the result and opted to take a position in the Audiencia Provincial de Málaga, where he served for a short time until given leave to take charge of the party's legal counsel.

In May 1983 he was elected to the Madrid city council. In February 1986, at the party's Seventh National Congress, he joined its Executive Committee. Ruiz-Gallardón's former position was incorporated into the structure of the AP. In the same year, he ran unsuccessfully as a Senate candidate for Palencia in the general elections (a district in which his party had little chance). The secretary general of the party, Jorge Verstrynge , retired in September 1986, and Ruiz-Gallardón became the interim secretary general until the Party Congress could convene. In December 1986, the leadership of AP-Madrid named him as their candidate for the presidency of the Autonomous Community of Madrid. In February 1987, the Eighth Special Congress of the AP appointed Antonio Hernández Mancha as president. Ruiz-Gallardón attained one of the four vice-presidential posts.

Ruiz-Gallardón won a position as Deputy of the Madrid Assembly on June 10, 1987. Only one month later, he was simultaneously elected to the Senate and named spokesman of the AP. On October 22, 1988, Ruiz-Gallardón resigned his party positions as the result of a misunderstanding with party president Mancha over an agreement with the CDS regarding Assembly rules. At the party's Ninth Congress in January 1989, Mancha was replaced as president by Manuel Fraga. The party was re-founded as the Partido Popular (PP), and Ruiz-Gallardón was appointed to the National Executive Committe and became president on the Committee for Conflicts and Discipline.

Following the general elections on October 29, 1989, Ruiz-Gallardón continued serving as a senator for Madrid and, as in the previous legislature, headed the Grupo Popular in the Senate. He returned to the PP's National Executive Committee at the Tenth Congress, this time as president. He also retained his position as president of the Commission on Conflicts. In April of 1990, he headed an internal investigation of the Caso Naseiro . This investigation resulted in the expulsion of several party officials, including Eduardo Zaplana .

First among his party's candidates for the Senate in Madrid in the general elections of June 6, 1993, Ruiz-Gallardón was once again elected to the Senate. He became the spokesman for the Senate Grupo Popular, and subsequently resigned his corresponding position in the Madrid Assembly. He continues to serve as the a regional deputy and the president of the PP in the Madrid Assembly. He was reelected for a third consecutive term on May 28 1995. He became president on June 28 at a session of the regional Assembly.

He was elected mayor of Madrid on May 25, 2003.

He is married to María del Mar Utrera. She is the daughter of José Utrera Molina, the former Minister of el Movimiento (literally, the movement). They have four sons, Alberto, José, Ignacio and Rodrigo.

Reference

• Pilares Democraticos – Quién es quién en la política - Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón (in Spanish)