Rosa Aguilar
Fromer mayor of Córdoba, Spain

13 March 2008: Joaquina Rosa Aguilar Rivero was born in the Andalucían city of Córdoba in 1957.  She graduated in law from the University of Seville in 1980.  While at university she joined the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), which was banned under the Franco regime, and took up a post as legal adviser to the Communist-led Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) union federation upon graduation.  She left its employ in 1985 to go into a private law firm and was elected as a city councillor of the communist United Left (IU) in 1987. Rosa Aguilar was short-listed for the 2008 World Mayor Prize.

In 1990 she obtained election to the parliament of the Autonomous Community of Andalucía in Seville.  After one term in the devolved assembly she obtained election to the national Congress in 1993 and again in 1996.  She was then elected mayor of Córdoba in 1999, thanks to a pact with the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and obtained a second term in 2003 without the need for any such alliance in the council chamber.  However, in 2007, she once again entered into a pact with the PSOE to retain the mayoralty against the centre-right Popular Party (PP).

Aguilar's IU party remains in a precarious situation vis-à-vis its relations with the Basque nationalist ANV party, currently in the process of being banned by the Spanish state.  Following the poor performance of the IU in the 2008 Spanish general election, Aguilar has been forced to deny any ambition to seek the party leadership from Gaspar Llamazares, who is stepping down from the post.

Aguilar is Vice President of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces and sits on the United Left’s national executive.