User:WhatADayToday12/Mariano Hernández Zapata

Mariano Hernández Zapata (Los Llanos de Aridane, August 26, 1982) is a Spanish politician, and since 2019, he has been the president of the Cabildo de La Palma for the People's Party.

Biography
Mariano Hernández Zapata is the son of Antonia Zapata Bethencourt, a pharmacy assistant, and Mariano Vicente Hernández Cantón, a businessman. He is the second of three siblings.

He holds a degree in Economics from the University of La Laguna, with a postgraduate degree in management skills from the Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid. He has worked in banking, the energy business sector, and as a self-employed professional.

He is passionate about sports, having been involved in football as a player in youth categories, and in adulthood, as a manager of the Unión Deportiva Los Llanos de Aridane. He is also a practitioner of triathlon.

Political Career
As a member of the People's Party, in the municipal elections of 2011, he began his political career as part of the candidacy for the City Council of Los Llanos de Aridane, as the number two on the list, alongside Noelia García Leal. He was also the number five on the list for the Cabildo Insular de La Palma, led by Asier Antona. After those elections, he took on the responsibility of being the councilor for Finance, Water, and Beaches of the City Council from 2011 to 2013 when a motion of no confidence removed him from that position. During those two years, he carried out important work, putting the municipality's public accounts in order and implementing new management protocols to streamline administration and ensure timely payments to all suppliers. In 2013, he became part of the government team of the Cabildo de La Palma, serving as councilor for Sports, Commerce, Youth, Employment, and delegate of Sodepal until May 2015. During his time in these responsibilities, he stood out for his clear leadership and commitment to enhancing the island's flagship sports event, Transvulcania, through transparency and effective management. His work as councilor also included hosting one of the stages of the World Padel Tour in La Palma and his management of Sodepal, where he brought about a significant turnaround for the public company, instilling credibility and achieving much-improved economic results compared to the previous management.

In the 2015 municipal elections, he ran again as a candidate on the list for the Cabildo of La Palma and served as a councilor until June 2016.

In the 2015 general elections, he was a candidate for the Senate in the constituency of La Palma, and he secured a seat as a senator by a clear margin. In the 2016 general elections, he ran again and was reelected with a higher number of votes.

During the 2015-2019 legislative term, he served as the first deputy mayor in the municipality of Los Llanos de Aridane, holding the positions of councilor for Finance, Water, and Security, after the People's Party won the municipal elections of 2015 in Los Llanos de Aridane. He successfully managed to settle the municipal bank debt and reduce water losses in the municipal supply network to historic levels.

During his tenure as a senator for the island of La Palma, he served as the deputy spokesperson of the joint committee on drug-related issues and as a member of the committees on agriculture, fishing, and food, as well as the committee on Ibero-American affairs.

He was chosen by the People's Party of La Palma to lead the candidacy for the Cabildo of La Palma in the municipal elections of 2019. The party obtained 6 councilors, and he was elected president through a motion of no confidence carried out together with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) against CC. This achievement gave the People's Party the presidency of the island's main institution after almost 30 years.