Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría At 52 years old, she is a woman who cannot hide her joy in life: she is the image of happiness. This Tuesday we saw her at the entrance to the party organized by Alejandro Sanz to celebrate his 55th birthday and the former number two of the Government of Rajoy She explained to us what unites her with the singer: “We have been friends for a long time,” she said as she got out of the car with her husband, who accompanied her.
When we asked him what he wished for the author of Broken heart On her 55th anniversary, the former vice president replied: “All the happiness in the world.” We also asked her how she sees him at the moment, in which she has broken up with his girlfriend and has been involved in legal skirmishes with the Treasury: “I see him as always, he is so wonderful and so wonderful,” she added. “I see him recovered,” she noted. She is too. And it's important because she became a little sick.
The last time we saw Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría in public was last summer, when she acted as a member of one of the polling stations at the Sagrada Familia school on Jorge Juan Street in Madrid. The TVE news programs traveled to the electoral college on Sunday, July 23, when it emerged that the woman who was a candidate to preside over the Popular Party after the departure of Rajoy and without a doubt one of the most powerful women in Spain when she served as minister and later number 2 of the Executive had had to work as a member that very important Sunday. “It's a different experience. In life you have to accumulate experiences,” she told us.
Go vote and meet Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría at one of the polling stations #23J pic.twitter.com/0vkFbiuBvr
— María Becerril (@mariabecerril) July 23, 2023
Soraya said goodbye to active politics in 2018 after winning the Popular Party primaries. She won but was ruled out to preside over the PP after Pablo Casado had the support of the other candidate, María Dolores de Cospedal. Let us remember that the other State lawyer and Soraya, with the same opposition, almost always got along like a cat and a dog. More than one analyst has commented that that decision within the Genoa party was a step backwards: then came the debacle of Casado and part of his team, the catharsis, and Feijoo, that has not been able to form a government despite the fact that the conservative party won the elections.
Pablo Casado He wished Soraya great success in her new professional career upon her retirement and indeed she has done and is doing very well. She was signed by Cuatrecasas, one of the most important law firms. Soraya is in the Commercial area and manages Corporate Governance and Compliance matters, in addition to joining the board of directors: “I am delighted to return to practicing law and to do so alongside the magnificent team of professionals at Cuatrecasas, whose experience I hope to continue learning in recent years,” read the statement he released upon arriving at his new job in the private sector.
We also saw her with Don Felipe and Doña Letizia in the summer, just before the Kings began their vacation in Marivent. Soraya attended the inauguration of The Gallery of the Royal Collections, in an event in front of the Royal Palace. The event, chaired by Kings Felipe and Letizia. There, by the way, she met another former vice president, the socialist Carmen Calvo.
But the best news related to Sáenz de Santamaría is related to his health. , about which she has not spoken publicly (nor denied) and has not revealed the nature of the problem she suffered. Four months after this information emerged, some of it somewhat alarming and far from reality, the former vice president reappeared at an event held at her law firm, in top shape and with a wonderful appearance to which she herself alluded in her words when was asked about the matter.
In July 2021 we reported that the health of Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría (Valladolid, 1971) was going through a delicate moment because the former vice president of the Government He suffered from an illness that forced him to reduce his professional activity in the Cuatrecasas office.
From those around Valladolid they told us at the time that the situation had generated serious concern. We also explained, quoting a former colleague of his, that The woman from Valladolid was “operated” and that the result of the intervention had been “hopeful.” In March, sources close to him gave us the best news: “He was able to handle it,” they confirmed. The same sources told us that she was “recovered” and “in much better health.”
“I'm not going to talk about my health”
At first, and for reasons not difficult to understand, Saenz de Santamaría He remained silent when his situation was revealed. As time passed, we saw her again. She looked good and she just said: “I'm not going to talk about my health, but you see how I am,” he commented. The former vice president appeared in public when the PP crisis broke out. The former vice president, rival in her day of the ousted Pablo Casado in the PP primaries. She was subtle when rubbing her former party colleagues, the least aesthetic of their internal wars, and she somehow anticipated Feijóo's arrival by predicting that Spain will build “better leaders” when politics recovers the lost “honorability” . Such a zasca at the show that his former teammates from Genoa were putting on at the time.
In that context of war fratricide between the two sides of the PP, Pablo Casado and Teodoro García Egea, contra Isabel Diaz Ayuso and almost all the barons of the PP, with feijóo at the head, his words were interpreted by many as a criticism of the management of the person who beat him in the 2018 primaries.
But the important thing is that all the sources consulted are happy to inform us that Soraya “is fine”, as we saw this Tuesday when we found her radiant and fun. The one who was number two Mariano Rajoy has managed to overcome the problem, although, they warn us, “you will have to take care of yourself and pass the corresponding reviews.”
Soraya was for six and a half years, until the motion of censure that brought Pedro Sánchez to Moncloa, the executing arm of the policy of the previous president of the Government. Sáenz de Santamaría, who turned 52 on June 10, is for many, and along with his boss, the symbol of an era.
Since she left politics we have often seen her in public. After leaving the Executive and losing the primaries in the People's Party in favor of Pablo Casadothanks to the 'clamp' of his enemy María Dolores de Cospedalonly her role as an elective advisor in the Council of State, the highest advisory body of the Government, maintains her as a public servant. Own Pedro Sanchez He called her to ask her. The Plenary Session of the Council of State meets once a month, and its powers include matters of State and preliminary drafts of constitutional reform when the proposal has not been prepared by the Council of State itself.
Read also: Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría: the new life (storybook) of the Presumed Rat
The State lawyer on leave signed in 2019 for Cuatrecasas, where he has specialized in the implementation of effective corporate governance systems, legal risk prevention, regulatory compliance control and crisis management.
Faithful to Mariano Rajoy until the end, very close to the kings Felipe y Joypolitical inactivity now allows her to travel, enjoy her son Iván, and her husband, Ivan Rosa, also a state lawyer, and senior executive of Telefónica. They are the ones who have always supported him, especially the complicated last months of his mandate, in which he saw how his boss and great protector of his Rajoy lost the scepter of power before Pedro Sánchez's motion of censure. His defeat against the socialist was the prelude to a new setback: the failure of his candidacy to preside over the PP after Mariano's departure. Pablo Casado won the game with the help of Cospedal. And Soraya gave way gracefully.
I attach the statement in which I announce, after meeting with our president @pablocasado_my departure from political activity.
I feel deep gratitude. It has been a priceless experience, in which I have tried to give the best of myself to the @PPopular and the Spanish pic.twitter.com/vsECrvuass— Sáenz de Santamaría (@Sorayapp) September 10, 2018
Aware that her importance in the party had lost steam, Sáenz de Santamaría, with a memory as prodigious as that of her former boss Rajoy, preferred to withdraw from the public sphere to focus on private business but above all on her husband and son, with who resides in a chalet in Fuente del Berro, in Madrid. The house has several floors and an area of 231 square meters with hardly any garden but with a small pool.
One of the first public appearances of Soraya since he left politics took place on the day of his inauguration as a member of the Council of State, in November 2018. He declared then that he saw the political panorama “with a distance” and said that he was personally experiencing a “reflective and calm moment “. To the woman who could have become the first female president of the Government In our history, no one can deny his strength and his ability to fight.
