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Eduardo Zaplana Biography

Eduardo Zaplana

(Cartagena, 1956) Spanish politician.Eduardo Zaplana Hernández-Soro was born on April 3, 1956 in Cartagena (Murcia).His father, according to his biography, was an officer in the Navy and an industrialist who dismantled ships.His mother, who died when Eduardo was nine, was a homemaker.

He completed his first studies at the Maristas in Cartagena and from there he entered the Lope de Vega school in Benidorm as an intern, where he attended high school.The COU, however, carried it out in Las Palmas, where he lived with his older sister.Finally, he studied law at the universities of Valencia (1975-1979) and Alicante (1982-1984), where he obtained a degree.Later, he specialized in legal advice.

Eduardo Zaplana

Before graduating, things from destiny, in February 1980 he had already married Rosa Barceló, daughter of a well-known businessman tourist of the Costa del Sol, Miguel Barceló, who would be a senator of the Popular Party (PP) for Alicante.The couple has three children.

A meteoric career

Between 1977 and 1982 he participated in political life from the ranks of the Union of the Democratic Center (UCD).He was secretary general of the Youth of the UCD in Alicante and a member of the National Executive, as well as provincial secretary of the centrist organization in Alicante.In addition, during the term of President Adolfo Suárez, he was a member of the Technical Cabinet of the Ministry of Transport, Tourism and Communications.After the disintegration of the UCD, he devoted himself to professional practice as a lawyer, but maintaining contact with political movements of a liberal court.

During the process of re-founding the PP led by José María Aznar, he joined this party, from which in 1990 he was elected provincial president of Alicante.The meteoric political career of Eduardo Zaplana had as its starting point Benidorm, the city of which he was elected mayor in 1991, thanks to the vote of a defector, the socialist Maruja Sánchez, although he had already achieved the best result that the center-right had ever achieved in this constituency.In just three years of government he faced a dozen complaints, although all of them were shelved, such as the alleged illegal financing of the PP through urban planning commissions ("Naseiro case").During his tenure as mayor, he also served as elected spokesman for the PP Parliamentary Group in the Valencian Parliament during the third term.

On November 26, 1993 he was elected president of the PP of the Valencian Community.This designation would force him to resign as mayor of Benidorm in November 1994.As mayor and as a deputy, he championed the opposition to the decree of homologation of Catalan and Valencian in education.

On May 28, 1995, the PP won the regional elections, and Zaplana, after an agreement with the regionalists of the Valencian Union, was elected president of the Generalitat by the Valencian Cortes on June 30, 1995 , sworn in on July 4.He would reissue the position in the elections of June 13, 1999, this time with an absolute majority.

President of the Generalitat Valenciana

During his tenure as regional president, the agreement on the transfer of powers from the National Employment Institute (INEM) to the Valencian Community, the last sections of the Valencia-Madrid highway were inaugurated and an agreement was reached for the construction of the Madrid-Valencia AVE.But it is fair to highlight that, in addition to structural improvements, during his tenure he promoted innovative social policies, which became a benchmark for other communities, such as new models of hospital management or care for the elderly, as well as policies for the creation of job.

In the economic sphere, however, his adversaries blamed him for leaving many "leaks", such as a deficit public television, Radio Televisión Valenciana, especially due to the waste of Channel 9, which only in 2001, for example, generated losses of 133.7 million euros, or in that architectural jewel of Santiago Calatrava that is the City of Arts and Sciences, which also in 2001 accumulated a loss of 36.2 million euros.The great A part of Zaplana's heritage, the Terra Mítica theme park, not only has it failed to attract the number of visitors foreseen in the study that justified its construction, but also generated great losses.

During his tenure as Valencian president, Zaplana developed a frenzied foreign activity, with trips to Mexico, China, Japan, the United States, Morocco, Uruguay, Nicaragua, etc., and held numerous meetings and institutional events in Italy, Belgium, Wales, Finland and with European institutions.

Within the framework of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union, from September 1995 to 1998 he was president of the Committee on Transport and Communication Networks.From this position he promoted different studies on sustainable development and the adaptation of new communication channels to the protection of the environment.Between February 1998 and February 2000, he chaired the Commission for Regional Policy and Structural Funds, carrying out intense work for the elaboration of the so-called Agenda 2000.

Member of the National Executive of the PP, in September 1999 was elected for the third consecutive time president of the PP in the Valencian Community, always endorsed by Aznar, since, thanks to Zaplana, the PP has one of its private reserves in the Valencian Community.In addition, in 1999 he actively participated in national politics, especially with the preparation of the presentation "The Spain of opportunities", debated and approved at the XIII National Congress of the PP.

On February 16, 2000, he was elected a member of the Bureau of the Committee of the Regions, of which he would be elected first vice president on February 6, 2002, the year in which he presided over the XIV National Congress.

Minister of Labor

On July 9, 2002, Aznar was appointed Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, replacing Juan Carlos Aparicio, a position that he swore the next day.In early 2003, the ministry occupied by Zaplana announced that it had planned a law to change the calculation of pensions.The amount, at the time, according to the Toledo Pact, came from the average of the last fifteen years.Zaplana proposed that the calculation be made from the entire working life.

The unions immediately raised their voices, especially Cándido Méndez, general secretary of the General Union of Workers (UGT), who called acts of protest.In July, Zaplana announced that, if there was no agreement with the unions, he was willing to postpone the discussion of the reform until March 2004.Months later, he announced the increase in widow's pensions and some minimum pensions for 2004.

After being appointed Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Zaplana took possession of his seat as senator representing the Valencian Community, after being elected by the Cortes of this community.In addition, the Executive Committee of the PP of Motril (Granada) awarded him one of the Ingenio Awards, for "his great work of conciliation between the unions and the government", although some unionists accuse him of being soft in form but harsh in form.background.For its part, the Kingdom of Monastrell de Murcia wine brotherhood named him a brother of honor.

In July 2003 a storm broke out as a result of reports published by Abc according to which when he was president of the Generalitat, he used his influence on the concession of Aguas de Valencia, SA (AVSA) to force AVSA to become part of the Tabarka communication group, with which Zaplana would seek control of some media to face the advance of the Prisa and El Correo groups.On July 19, in an appearance before the media, Zaplana said: "Time will give and take away reasons." It should be remembered that, as president, he was awarded the @asLAN National Award for Innovation and Dissemination of Information Technologies.

At the beginning of September 2003, the appointment of Mariano Rajoy as PP candidate for the country's presidency prompted the seventh remodeling of the council of ministers of the government of José María Aznar (the fourth in the legislature).As a result of the changes, Eduardo Zaplana maintained the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and also assumed the spokesperson for the executive.

He has published the book The Success of Spain.The structuring of a plural nation , in which he expresses his vision of autonomous Spain and develops a proposal for autonomous financing based on fiscal co-responsibility, solidarity and financial sufficiency.

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