the municipal elections of 2011, defeating the socialist candidate Jaime Lissavetzky, who had been State Secretary for sports until then. IU increased its representation from 5 to 6 seats, PSOE lost 3 of its 18 seats and UPyD, that won 5 seats, become a member of the Madrid City Council for the first time in its history. Ruiz-Gallardón was elected Deputy to Congress for Madrid in the Spanish general election of 2011. He was placed 4th on the People's Party list of candidates, choosing to be fourth on the list as a tribute to his father, who had occupied the same place. Alongside Ruiz-Gallardón, other 18 members of that list won a seat in the Spanish Congress of Deputies. Minister of Justice On 21 December 2011 he was appointed Minister of Justice by Mariano Rajoy, to form part of the first government of the PP after its victory in the general elections held on 20 November 2011. On the same day he was appointed Minister, on 22 December 2011, he left his office as Mayor of Madrid, being replaced ad interim by the deputy Mayor, Manuel Cobo. On 27 November 2011, with 31 votes for, the Plenary of the Council elected Ana Botella as his successor. At his first Parliamentary appearance as Minister of Justice, he announced his intention to reform the abortion law approved by the previous Zapatero government, a law based on time limits, the same as the ones existing in most European countries, widely criticized by the Catholic Church and by the People's Party (in particular in relation to the group comprising young people aged about 16–18 years, who could legally get an abortion despite the opposition of their parents) to return to the 1985 law, by which a woman had to invoke some reason to justify her decision. He also announced his intention to change the way the 12 judges called vocales of the General Council of the Judiciary were elected, returning to the old direct election system by the judges, dropped in 1995 (with a slight modification passed in 2001 during the former PP government, headed by José María Aznar, thanks to the consensus reached with the PSOE, that established the election by the Courts from a list of 31 candidates submitted by the associations of judges) because the 12 vocales were filled up with only one association of judges, the prevalent and conservative Professional