Iván Espinosa de los Monteros

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Espinosa de los Monteros and the second or maternal family name is de Simón.

Iván Espinosa de los Monteros
MP
Iván Espinosa de los Monteros in 2023
Spokesperson of Vox in the Congress of Deputies
In office
11 June 2019 – 30 May 2023
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byPepa Millán
Member of the Congress of Deputies
In office
21 May 2019 – 17 August 2023
ConstituencyMadrid
Personal details
Born
Iván Espinosa de los Monteros y de Simón

(1971-01-03) 3 January 1971 (age 54)
Madrid, Spain
Political partyVox (Since 2013)
Spouse
​
(m. 2001)​
Children4
Alma materICADE
Kellogg School of Management
OccupationReal estate developer, economist and politician

Iván Espinosa de los Monteros y de Simón (born 3 January 1971) is a Spanish real estate developer and former politician who served as Member of the Congress of Deputies for the Madrid constituency from 2019 to 2023.

As a prominent member of the Spanish national-conservative political party Vox, Espinosa served as Spokesperson of the Vox Parliamentary Group in Congress. Within Vox, he was the Deputy Secretary for International Relations.

Biography

Espinosa was born in the City of Madrid in 1971. He is one of the five sons of executive Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros y Bernaldo de Quirós, 4th Marquess of Valtierra, and his wife, María Eugenia de Simón y Vallarino. Espinosa studied Economic and Business Sciences at the Catholic Institute of Business Administration and Management (ICADE) and got an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management.[1]

In 2001, he married Rocío Monasterio, a Spanish-Cuban architect, with whom he has four children.[2] The couple has sometimes worked together in the construction sector, buying unused spaces to convert them into luxury homes designed by Monasterio. He has held senior positions in several international financial groups such as Arthur Andersen, Schroders or McKinsey. He himself owns several companies in the luxury housing and restaurant sector.[3]

He speaks Spanish, Catalan,[4] English and French.

Political career

Linked to the political party Vox since its foundation in 2013, he held the position of General Secretary of the Provisional Organizing Committee before the celebration of the first party congress. In that congress, he was elected Secretary-General of the party until October 2016 when he assumed as Deputy Secretary for International Relations. He was part of the electoral list of Vox in the 2014 European election in Spain, led by former First Vice President of the European Parliament Vidal-Quadras. Vox did not obtain representation.[5] He also bid for a seat of senator representing Madrid in the 2015 and 2016 general elections, failing to become a member of the Upper House after receiving, respectively, 27,222 and 20,373 votes, well short of the 725,719 and 720,901 votes obtained by the last elected senator in each election.[6][7]

A noted orator, Espinosa has represented his party in various political gatherings on television.[3] Likewise, he has manifested himself in favor of the unity of Spain and the monarchy[8] and has stated that he has been a voter of the People's Party, a formation to which he is currently critical.[9] Espinosa has criticized the 2004 Gender Violence Act on several occasions[3] and he has also manifested himself in favor of the criminalisation of parties not believing in the "unity of Spain" and of those that "do not renege on Marxism."[10]

For the 2019 general election, Espinosa was chosen to occupy the third place in the electoral list of Vox to the Congress of Deputies.[11] On 28 April, he was elected MP for Madrid.[12][13] On 21 May he was appointed Spokesperson of the Vox Parliamentary Group in the Congress.[14]

He left the party in August 2023, shortly after 2023 Spanish general election.[15]

In April 2019, the digital newspaper eldiario.es reported that a court in Madrid had sentenced a company, of which Espinosa was the only shareholder and administrator, to pay part of a debt it had contracted with a construction company that he had hired to carry out some works in a house in Madrid and on which there were discrepancies. Espinosa had paid part of the necessary repairs whose amount the court deducted from the amount claimed. The sentence was ratified by the Provincial Court of Madrid.[16]

In November 2019, Espinosa said on Antena 3's Espejo Público programme that per capita, immigrants are three times more likely to commit rape than Spaniards. The lawyer Hilal Tarkou initiated legal action, but in December 2020 a judge closed the case because he found that no crime was committed.[17]

References

  1. ^ EFE (21 May 2019). "Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, portavoz de Vox en el Congreso". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  2. ^ "Cuatro hijos, casoplón en Madrid y casados con bendición papal: así es la pareja en la cima de Vox". La Vanguardia. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  3. ^ a b c 20Minutos (10 January 2019). "¿Quién es Iván Espinosa de los Monteros de Vox?". 20minutos.es – Últimas Noticias (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 June 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ COPE.es (11 January 2019). "Vox se mofa de un periodista que dijo ser "bilingüe" por hablar catalán". COPE (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  5. ^ Muro, Míriam (26 May 2014). "Tristeza y decepción en Vox tras no conseguir un escaño". Libertad Digital (in European Spanish). Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  6. ^ Junta Electoral Central: "Resolución de 26 de enero de 2016, de la Presidencia de la Junta Electoral Central, por la que se publica el resumen de los resultados de las elecciones al Congreso de los Diputados y al Senado convocadas por Real Decreto 977/2015, de 26 de octubre, y celebradas el 20 de diciembre de 2015, conforme a las actas de escrutinio general y de proclamación de electos remitidas por las correspondientes Juntas Electorales Provinciales y por las Juntas Electorales de Ceuta y de Melilla" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (25): 7917–7990. 29 January 2016. ISSN 0212-033X.
  7. ^ Junta Electoral Central: "Acuerdo de 20 de julio de 2016, de la Junta Electoral Central, por el que se publica el resumen de los resultados de las elecciones al Congreso de los Diputados y al Senado convocadas por Real Decreto 184/2016, de 3 de mayo, y celebradas el 26 de junio de 2016, conforme a las actas de escrutinio general y de proclamación de electos remitidas por las correspondientes Juntas Electorales Provinciales y por las Juntas Electorales de Ceuta y de Melilla". Boletín Oficial del Estado (176): 51661–51727. 22 July 2016. ISSN 0212-033X.
  8. ^ monteros, p espinosa de los (17 January 2014). "Iván Espinosa de los Monteros: "Lo que me importa es pasar a mis hijos un país en buen estado"". ABC (in Spanish). Spain. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  9. ^ "Iván Espinosa de los Monteros (Vox): "Yo fui votante del PP, pero de todo se sale, como de la droga"". LaSexta (in Spanish). 18 March 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  10. ^ "Vox quiere prohibir los partidos políticos independentistas y los que 'no renuncian al marxismo'". Público. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  11. ^ "Abascal, Smith y Espinosa encabezan la lista de Vox por Madrid y Garriga por Barcelona". El Confidencial (in Spanish). 17 March 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  12. ^ Jan, Cecilia (30 April 2019). "Quiénes son los 24 diputados de Vox". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  13. ^ Razón, La (29 April 2019). "Los 24 diputados de Vox al Congreso". La Razón (in European Spanish). Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  14. ^ "Abascal prefiere la flema de Espinosa en la portavocía a la brocha gorda de Ortega Smith". El Español (in European Spanish). 22 May 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  15. ^ Lázaro, Fernando; Call, Vicente (8 August 2023). "Iván Espinosa de los Monteros abandona Vox y Abascal tendrá que reorganizar el partido". El Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  16. ^ Caballero, Fátima (9 April 2019). "El dirigente de Vox Iván Espinosa de los Monteros fue condenado dos veces por dejar sin pagar obras de su mansión". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  17. ^ Pozas, Alberto (23 December 2019). "La jueza no ve delito en las palabras de Espinosa de los Monteros relacionando extranjeros y violaciones" (in Spanish). Cadena SER. Retrieved 24 March 2021.