Quick Facts
Biography
Jorge Fernández Díaz (born 6 April 1950) is a Spanish politician and a member of the Partido Popular (PP).
Early life and education
He was born on 6 April 1950 in Valladolid, Spain, as the son of a Franquist member of the military, and the second of ten children. He moved to Barcelona at the age of 3 and studied industrial engineering at the Technical University College of Barcelona. He is the brother of Alberto Fernández Díaz, a former PP leader in Catalonia. Jorge holds an industrial engineering degree. He was the chairman of the Catalan PP from 1989 to 1991 and under-minister from 1996 to 2004. He is also a member of Opus Dei.
Career
Díaz started his career working as an engineer and civil servant. He is a member of the People's Party and has been a member of the Spanish parliament since 1989. In 1983, he became the elected leader of Alianza Popular's Barcelona regional branch. The following year Díaz began to serve as a deputy in the Catalan Parliament for Alianza Popular. From 1986 to 1989 he was also a senator. In 1988 he was again elected to the Catalan Parliament, but for the newly founded People's Party. In 1989 he left regional political offices and he was elected to the congress of deputies as a representative of Barcelona in the 1989 general elections. He served as deputy minister in all cabinets headed by José María Aznar. From 2008 to 2011 he was one of the vice presidents of congress. He was the top candidate on the party's Barcelona list in the November 2011 general election.
Díaz was appointed minister of interior to the cabinet led by prime minister Mariano Rajoy in December 2011.
On June 21, 2016, five days before the general elections, as head of list of PP by Barcelona, he was involved in a conspiracy case against the parties of the independence of Catalonia to create corruption scandals that he, with the head of Office Against Corruption of Catalonia, had manipulated. He said that the Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, and leader of the Popular Party candidate, knew the fact. Often the interior minister has been criticized by numerous political persecution against political parties as Podemos, whose complaints have been filed without any importance.
Views
Díaz is a conservative and religious politician. In March 2013, Díaz argued that the law on gay marriage is not acceptable due to religious concerns but due to rational concerns.
He is a supernumerary member of the Opus Dei.