Before arriving at Moncloa, Pedro Sanchez He worked as an advisor, consultant and professor of Economics. His professional career included the European Parliament, Bosnia and the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU), as well as the Camilo José Cela University. Part of these jobs were linked to political activity from the beginning, years before becoming a councilor or deputy.
Their training is economical. Sánchez graduated in Economics and Business Sciences in 1995 by the Real Colegio Universitario María Cristina, a center attached to the Complutense University of Madrid, according to its official biography in Moncloa. He then expanded his studies on the European economy and obtained his doctorate in 2012.
The connection with the PSOE had begun before finishing the degree. He joined the party in 1993 and, the following year, to the Socialist Youth. For this reason, his first jobs and his approach to politics developed in parallel, although he was still years away from occupying a position of public representation.
From advisor in Brussels to work in Bosnia
One of the first jobs on his resume is that of advisor in the European Parliament in 1998. By then he had oriented part of his training towards community affairs, with a master’s degree in Economics of the European Union from the Free University of Brussels.
He also completed a diploma of Advanced Studies in European Economic and Monetary Integration at the Ortega y Gasset University Institute. Economics and international relations thus appear both in his studies and in the positions he held during those years.
In 1999 worked in Bosnia. The biography published by the PSOE places that stage during the Kosovo war and attributes to him the position of chief of staff of the high representative. Moncloa’s review also includes his time in that cabinet, although without specifying the leadership position.
Your employment at the OCU and consulting for companies
Upon his return to Spain, Sánchez worked as director of International Relations of the OCU in 2000according to the biographical information of the PSOE. It is one of the positions in his career outside of the elected positions for which he would later be known.
That same curriculum includes his work as Economics advisor to the Federal Executive Commission of the PSOE between 2000 and 2004. He also indicates that he worked as a freelance consultant and advised foreign companies, although he does not detail the names of those companies or the dates of each assignment.
His first elected position came in 2004when he joined the Madrid City Council as a councilor. He remained in the council until 2009, the year in which he made the leap to Congress as a deputy for Madrid.
Professor of Economics at the Camilo José Cela University
Teaching is another of the occupations that appear in Sánchez’s official biographies. He served as Professor of Economics at the Camilo José Cela Universitythe same institution where he obtained his doctorate in 2012.
That date allows him to place his doctoral training within a political career that was already underway. By then he had been a councilor and had been through Congress during the previous legislature. His academic activity, therefore, does not entirely belong to a stage prior to politics.
In 2013 published the book “The new European economic diplomacy”. According to the PSOE review, the work collected and developed part of the contents of his doctoral thesis.
From councilor in Madrid to the presidency of the Government
After his first years as a deputy, Sánchez reached the General Secretariat of the PSOE in July 2014elected through the direct vote of the militancy. He held the seat until 2016 and won it again in the May 2017 primary.
His arrival to the presidency of the Government took place in June 2018after the motion of censure against Mariano Rajoy was successful. Fourteen years had passed since he joined the Madrid City Council and more than two decades since he finished his degree in Economics.