Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón Jiménez (born 11 December 1958) is a Spanish politician and former Minister of Justice. He was mayor of Madrid between 2003 and 2011. A stalwart of the conservative People's Party (PP), he has previously been a leading figure in various local and national legislative bodies. In December 2011 Ruiz-Gallardón was appointed Minister of Justice in Mariano Rajoy's inaugural cabinet. He resigned in September 2014. Early life and education Ruiz-Gallardón was born in Madrid. His father, José María Ruiz Gallardón, was a member of the leadership of the People's Alliance (AP), precursor to the present-day People's Party. He attended secondary school in Madrid at the Jesuit School Nuestra Señora del Recuerdo, and then studied law at the Universidad San Pablo CEU. He is married to María del Mar Utrera, who is the daughter of José Utrera Molina, a former Minister of the Franco regime. They have four sons: Alberto, José, Ignacio and Rodrigo. Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón is a cousin of Trinidad Jiménez, the former Foreign Affairs Minister of Spain, and Cécilia Attias, former First Lady of France. He is the great-grandchild of the composer Isaac Albéniz. Political life As a lawyer, Ruiz-Gallardón sat for exams to begin a career as a prosecutor at the age of 23. He attained the position, ranking second in the twenty eighth year. He was given a position in the Málaga Provincial Court, where he served for a short time until given leave to take charge of the party's legal counsel. In May 1983 he was elected to Madrid city council. In February 1986, at the party's Seventh National Congress, he joined its Executive Committee. In the same year, he ran unsuccessfully as a Senate candidate for Palencia in the general elections but finished fifth, 301 votes behind the successful PSOE candidate, in a district where four candidates were elected. In the aftermath, the secretary general of his party, Jorge Verstrynge, retired and Ruiz-Gallardón became the interim secretary general until the Party Congress could convene. His next political position was in December 1986, when the regional leadership of AP in Madrid nominated him as candidate for the presidency of the Autonomous Community of Madrid with no eventual success. In February 1987, the Eighth Extraordinary Congress of the AP appointed Antonio Hernández Mancha as chairman. Ruiz-Gallardón left his interim general secretary position and was named one of the four vice-chairmen of the party. Ruiz-Gallardón was elected