Adriana Lastra

Adriana Lastra
MP
Adriana Lastra in 2018
Deputy Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
In office
18 June 2017 – 18 July 2022
Secretary-GeneralPedro Sánchez
Preceded byOffice re-established
Elena Valenciano (2012-2014)
Succeeded byMaría Jesús Montero
Leader of the Socialist Group in the Congress of Deputies
In office
7 June 2018 – 8 September 2021
DeputyRafael Simancas
Preceded byMargarita Robles
Succeeded byHéctor Gómez
Member of the Congress of Deputies
Incumbent
Assumed office
13 January 2016
ConstituencyAsturias
Member of the Parliament of Asturias
In office
27 May 2007 – 24 May 2015
ConstituencyEastern
Personal details
Born (1979-03-30) March 30, 1979 (age 45)
Ribadesella, Spain
Political partySpanish Socialist Workers' Party
OccupationPolitician

Adriana Lastra Fernández (born 30 March 1979 in Ribadesella) is a Spanish politician member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party who served as the Spokesperson of the Socialist Group in the Congress of Deputies. She was also the Deputy Secretary-General of the PSOE until 18 July 2022.[1]

Biography

Lastra was born in Ribadesella, a municipality of the Spanish region of Asturias. She started the studying cultural anthropology but she did not finish the degree.[2]

Lastra joined the Socialist Workers' Party at the age of 18 and she was appointed Secretary-General of the Socialist Youth of Asturias the following year, in 1999, being in the position until 2004 when she was appointed Secretary for Social Movements and NGOs. Between 2008 and 2012 she served as Secretary for Local Policy of the Asturian Socialist Federation.

In the 2007 Asturian regional election she was elected MP of the Parliament of Asturias and during that term she served as Spokesperson of the Socialist Group in the Committee for the Presidency, Justice and Equality. She was re-elected in the 2011 and 2012 regional elections.

National politics

As a very close person to the newly appointed Secretary-General of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, she served as Secretary for Local Policy of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.[3] Lastra participated for the first time in the national election in 2015, heading the list of the constituency of Asturias of the Socialist Party and she was elected MP of the Congress of Deputies. She was re-elected in the 2016 general election.

After the 2016 general election, the possibly of a third consecutive election was imminent and the Secretary-General Sánchez proposed to the Federal Committee of the PSOE (the executive body of the Party) the possibility of holding an Extraordinary Congress with an urgent nature to decide if they should allow the Second Rajoy Government or rejecting it (the position of Sánchez) by asking the voters. The position of most of the members of the Federal Committee was to refrain and allow Mariano Rajoy to form a new government, rejecting Sánchez's request and forcing his resignation. After his resignation, a Caretaker Commission take control of the Party and Lastra publicly rejected what the Federal Committee did.[4]

She was one of the decisive supports in the decision of Pedro Sánchez to attend the 2017 leadership election to regain the leadership of the PSOE and played an essential role in the campaign of the candidate, based on the rejection of the ideological project of the People's Party and the importance of the socialist bases to recover the party. After Sánchez was re-elected as Secretary-General with more than 50% of the votes, the 39th PSOE Congress was held in which Lastra was named Deputy Secretary-General becoming second-in-command to Sánchez and Deputy Spokesperson of the Socialist Group in the Congress of Deputies.[5]

After the success of the 2018 vote of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy, Pedro Sánchez was elected Prime Minister of Spain and the Leader (Spokesperson) of the Socialist Group in the Congress of Deputies Margarita Robles was appointed Minister of Defence, promoting Lastra to that position, becoming the youngest person and the third woman to occupy this position in the history of the Socialist Party.[6] She was replaced by Héctor Gómez Hernández on 8 September 2021.[7]

References

  1. ^ "Adriana Lastra será vicesecretaria general del PSOE". eldiario.es (in Spanish). 15 June 2017. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  2. ^ "'Vividores' de la política | AsturiasDiario" (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 2016-10-03. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  3. ^ EFE (29 July 2014). "Adriana Lastra pide prudencia y evitar tensiones en las agrupaciones locales". La Nueva España (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  4. ^ "Pedro Sánchez se va y apela a las bases para volver a liderar el PSOE". El Mundo (in Spanish). 29 October 2016. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  5. ^ Sanz, Luis Ángel (15 June 2017). "Adriana Lastra será 'número dos' del PSOE". El Mundo (in Spanish). Madrid: Unidad Editorial. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  6. ^ "Adriana Lastra, nueva portavoz del PSOE en el Congreso de los Diputados". 20minutos.es (in Spanish). 5 June 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  7. ^ "Sánchez oficializará hoy los nombramientos de Héctor Gómez y Eva Granados como portavoces parlamentarios". COPE (in Spanish). Europa Press. 2021-09-06. Retrieved 2021-09-08.