Miguel Ángel Gallardo (politician)

Miguel Ángel Gallardo Miranda (born 8 June 1974) is a Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) politician. He was the mayor of his hometown of Villanueva de la Serena from 2003 to 2024, when he was elected secretary general of the PSOE in Extremadura.

Biography
Born in Villanueva de la Serena in Extremadura, Gallardo is married and has two children as of 2024. He is qualified in electronic maintenance, infant education and social education, the last of those being a degree from the National University of Distance Education (UNED). He joined the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in 1995, and was secretary general of the Socialist Youth of Spain (JSE) in his hometown from 1996 to 2003.

Gallardo was elected mayor of his hometown in May 2003, when he was 28, ending eight years of his party being in opposition. He remained in office until March 2024, serving six terms with absolute majorities in each. In 2015, he became president of the provincial deputation of the Province of Badajoz.

As mayor of Villanueva de la Serena, Gallardo proposed a municipal merger with nearby Don Benito, thus forming a city of 65,000 that would be the third-biggest in the region after Badajoz and Cáceres. The proposal was backed by 91% of voters in his city and 66% of voters in the other, as well as Don Benito mayor José Luis Quintana Álvarez. The plan was scrapped in 2023 when a localist party opposed to the merger won the mayoralty of Don Benito, with support from the People's Party (PP).

In March 2024, Gallardo was elected leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party of Extremadura with 56.2% of the vote against Lara Garlito, who had the endorsement of the PSOE's central leadership including prime minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez.