Spanish VIPs
Irene Montero (born 1988)
Irene María Montero Gil has recently been named Minister for Equality in the new PSOE/ Podemos left-wing government led by President Pedro Sanchez. She joined the Podemos political party shortly after its inception in 2014 and has been a representative in the Spanish government for the last four terms.
Up to the age of 16, Irene was educated in a non-profit making cooperative school which was organised with assembly structure, and this educational background has strongly influenced her way of life and attitude to decision making. At the age of 15 she joined the Young Communist movement and was active in a wide range of social movements including 15M and PAH (the platform created to support victims of evictions caused by the economic crisis).
She graduated in Psychology in 2011 and during her university years she spent five months in Chile where she participated in student movements. She has also worked for some months as a shop assistant in an electrical store. In 2013 she obtained a Masters degree in Educational Psychology. She obtained a PhD grant which led to a Harvard grant to study in the United States, but she decided against this course of action, due to her political commitments. For the same reason she finally abandoned her PhD thesis.
In 2014 she was voted in as a member of Podemos coordinating committee and became a member of parliament for Podemos in 2015. She became spokesperson for Podemos in various commissions and started to prove her worth as a powerful public speaker and political communicator. After a hard-fought and controversial party assembly, known as Vista Alegre II, Montero replaced Iñigo Errejón as party spokesperson and effectively number two of the party after its leader Pablo Iglesias.
Irene Montero and Pablo Iglesias have formed a personal relationship and in 2018 they caused some controversy by purchasing a large chalet on the outskirts of Madrid to provide a home for their family. Many people, including members of the Podemos party, felt that this purchase and their move away from Madrid centre was a betrayal of Iglesiass´ working class roots and the party ethos. In July 2018 the couple gave birth to premature twin boys Leo and Manuel, and a year later a third child, a daughter Aitana.
In January 2020, after months of intense negotiation and a second election, Podemos agreed a coalition government with the PSOE leader Pedro Sanchez. Podemos has four ministers in the government including Pablo Iglesias as Vice-president and Irene Montero as Minister for Equality, a role that she has said will bring her feminist principles into the forefront.