Carme Chacón

This is a Catalan name. The first family name is Chacón and the second is Piqueras.

Carme Chacón
Minister of Defence
In office 14 April 2008 – 22 December 2011
Prime Minister	José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
Preceded by	José Antonio Alonso
Succeeded by	Pedro Morenés
Personal details
Born	Carme Chacón Piqueras March 13, 1971 (1971-03-13) Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain
Political party	PSOE (PSC)
Spouse(s)	Miguel Barroso
Children	Miquel
Alma mater	University of Barcelona
Occupation	Lawyer Professor

Carme Chacón Piqueras (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈkarmə tʃəˈkom piˈkeɾəs]; born 13 March 1971) is a Spanish politician who was Minister of Defence from 2008 to 2011 in the cabinet led by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. She is married and gave birth to her first child, a son named Miquel on 19 May 2008.

She was born in Esplugues de Llobregat in the Catalan county of Baix Llobregat. She holds a bachelor in Law from the University of Barcelona, and she conducted her postgraduate study at Osgoode Hall Law School (Toronto), the University of Kingston and Laval University in Quebec City. She worked as a lecturer of Constitutional Law at the University of Girona.

Chacón is a member of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia and Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. She has been a PSOE member of parliament for Barcelona since the 2000 election, the vice-president of the Spanish Congress of Deputies (Lower House) in José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's legislature and she was later named minister of Housing after María Antonia Trujillo before becoming Minister of Defence in April 2008. She was the first female Minister of Defence in Spain, which, together with the fact that she was seven months pregnant at the time, was considered a significant development by the press.

After José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced he was not going to run in 2012 elections, she was widely assumed to run for her party primaries to happen during Autumn 2011. However, after the failure of the PSOE in 2011 Local Elections she announced that she withdraw from the race.

With the landslide defeat of the PSOE Zapatero Government in the November 2011 legislative elections, Chacon ceded the Defence Minister's post to Pedro Morenés in December 2011.

She filed to be PSOE's General Secretary. On 4th February 2012 she lost to Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba 487 to 465 votes in the 38th congress of the party.

External links

• Biography in english at Spanish Government website

Notes and references

Political offices
Preceded by Margarita Mariscal de Gante	Congress of Deputies Vice-President 2004 - 2007	Succeeded by Carmen Calvo
Preceded by María Antonia Trujillo	Minister of Housing of Spain 2007 - 2008	Succeeded by Beatriz Corredor
Preceded by José Antonio Alonso	Minister of Defence of Spain 2008 - 2011	Succeeded by Pedro Morenés
Spanish Congress of Deputies
Preceded by Title jointly held	Deputy for Barcelona 2000 – present	Succeeded by Title jointly held