Adriana Ramos (1956-) was Prime Minister of Spain from 13 December 2021 to 15 August 2022, interrupting Martin Rabellino's terms. Ramos was able to form a government with the support of protest votes from the neoliberal wing of the PSOE and from the conservative-liberal Ciudadanos party, which abandoned its earlier coalition with the PSOE in response to its implementation of a controversial income tax. As Ramos' rise to power was a fluke, as she only won because Podemos leader Mia Soria did not attend the leadership vote (she would certainly have voted for Rabellino), Ramos achieved little during her time in office. She failed to transform Spain into a presidential democracy due to PSOE opposition, failed to slash government spending, oversaw a vote to retain the monarchy, and also oversaw the establishment of an 80% threshold for constitutional amendments, inadvertently granting the PSOE majority in Congress the ability to block constitutional amendments by preventing the other parties from reaching a decisive threshold for any proposed reform. The 2022 Angela Monte corruption scandal ruined the PP's reputation as a viable alternative to the PSOE, and Rabellino's campaigning skills brought favorable media coverage to the PSOE, forcing the PP to fight an uphill battle ahead of the 1 August 2022 general election. The PP and its allies were decimated in a PSOE landslide, with the PSOE increasing its majority from 13 to 15 seats at the expense of the PP's coalition partners, Vox and Ciudadanos, who each lost one seat. In the ensuing competition to form a coalition government, Rabellino defeated Ramos by a 19-18 margin, the same margin by which Ramos had previously defeated him, and Ramos was forced to return to leading the parliamentary opposition.
Biography[]
Adriana Ramos was born in Salamanca, Castile and Leon in 1956. She was a member of the Falange party before joining the Alianza Popular and then the People's Party, and she became the PP's leader ahead of the 2019 general election. On 18 March 2019, she led her party to win 24.95% of the vote and 10/40 Cortes seats, placing in second after Martin Rabellino's PSOE party, which won 26.21% of the vote and 10 seats. Ramos became the leader of the opposition, allying with Vox against the center-left coalition government.
Ramos and her party lost four consecutive elections to the popular PSOE government, but a series of events in 2021 turned the tide in her party's favor. Despite Vox's early challenge to the PP's preeminence among Spain's right-wing parties, Ramos led her party to win 20.9% of the vote and 8/40 Cortes seats in the 29 November 2021, placing in second, behind the PSOE's 33% and 13 seats. By this time, the conservative movement had gained more support due to opposition to the PSOE's wave of public program initiatives, a brief period of economic downturn, and a new income tax, as well as due to public fatigue after four PSOE governments under Rabellino. In addition, the PSOE was unable to command the loyalty of all of its deputies, let alone its former coalition partners. On 13 December 2021, talks were held between the parties to form a new government, and Rabellino went into the election confident that his party would once again form a coalition government, even if just by a slim margin. However, he was shocked to find that Ciudadanos - previously one of his coalition partners - decided to partner with Ramos due to its opposition to the new income tax, while Vox, ERC deputy Felicitat Castellvi, and PSOE deputies Alonso Borja and Salma Paez voted in Ramos' favor despite their previous commitments to supporting Rabellino's government. Because of the absence of Podemos leader Mia Soria on lawmaking business, what could have been a deadlocked vote instead resulted in Ramos winning the support of 19 deputies to Rabellino's 18, and she became the next Prime Minister of Spain.
Premiership[]
Ramos' government had been formed by such a twist of ill fate for the PSOE that she managed to achieve little in a Congress in which 23 of its 40 seats were held by the socialist and regionalist parties. Her party failed to abolish the government's road maintenance program in a vote of 28-6 and the bus transport service in a vote of 29-5, and, at the start of 2022, the PSOE remained the party with the best fundraising, raising €210 million to the PP's €158 million; Vox raised €92 million and Podemos €90 million, with only the two populist parties experiencing fundraising boosts that year. Her plan to transform Spain into a presidential system failed in a vote of 24-14; while the "approve" faction won a plurality of the votes, they failed to meet the threshold required for their law to become law. On 28 March 2022, her lawmaker Angela Monte was involved in a corruption scandal, boosting the PSOE's popularity as the alternative to the PP. The Congress then voted 33-1 to establish an 80% threshold for the approval of constitutional amendments, ironically ensuring that the majority party - which, at the time, was the PSOE - would be able to vet which amendments made it. A proposed abolition of the monarchy was voted down 34-2, the income tax was retained after a 19-10 vote, and a proposed land tax failed in a vote of 18-19. On 1 August 2022, new elections were held, and the PSOE won 36.66% of the vote and 15 seats (+2 seats), the PP fell to 19.45% and 8 seats (no seat loss), Vox fell to 11.32% and 4 seats (-1 seat), Podemos fell to 8.98% and 4 seats (no seat loss), Ciudadanos fell to 8.42% and 3 seats (-1 seat), the ERC fell to 7.69% and 3 seats (no seat loss), and the PNV fell to 7.47% and 3 seats (no seat loss). The PSOE achieved their best yet electoral results in response to the Monte scandal, now maintaining a 7-seat lead over the PP and over one third of the Congress. The PP's defeat was softened by the defection of Eva Cardenal from the PSOE to PP due to her support for neoliberalism. In the ensuing 15 August 2022 leadership election, Ramos was defeated by a margin of 19-18, with all of the PSOE, most of Podemos and the ERC, and a PNV deputy backing Rabellino over Ramos and returning the government to Rabellino's hands.
Leader of the Opposition[]
Ramos was promptly forced to return to the opposition as Rabellino and the PSOE enjoyed their mandate to lead the country for another year.