Javier Zarzalejos
Member of the Euopean Parliament
Group of the European People's Party.
Member of the Committee on Legal Affairs, of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and of the Delegation for relations with Canada.
Director of the FAES foundation.
I was born in 1960 in Bilbao, Spain. I graduated in Law at Deusto University, Bilbao. Since 1984, I belong to the High Corps of the Spanish State Civil Administrators.
I engaged in politics at a very early age in the Basque Country region, where I hold the position of Secretary General of the Popular Coalition [Coalición Popular], which integrated the political parties that afterwards would converge in the PP [Spanish Popular Party].
I have broad experience in the public administration sector where, as a top civil servant, he has held several positions: Assistant Secretary of the Spanish-North American Council (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), General Deputy Director of Information (Ministry of the Spokesperson) and Information Advisor (Embassy of Spain to the United Kingdom), among others.
In 1996, I was appointed Secretary General of the Prime Minister’s Office by Jose Mª Aznar, where I stayed until the end of Mr. Aznar’s office in 2004.
I have published different works on terrorism, the territorial organization of the state and nationalism. I collaborate with the journal El Correo, a newspaper from Bilbao that belongs to Vocento group, where I regularly publish opinion and political analysis articles.
In January 2012 I was appointed Secretary General at the Foundation for Social Analysis and Studies, FAES, ranked as one of the most influential political think tanks in Spain, where I previously held the position of Director of the Constitution and Institutions Unit. Since January 2017 I became Director, after FAES ceased to be legally linked to the PP. I am also Editor of the in-house publication “Cuadernos de Pensamiento Político”.
Since July 2019, I am Member of the European Parliament in the Group of the European People´s Party, which is the largest political group in the European Parliament with 182 Members from 26 countries.
I have published the book “No hay ala Oeste en la Moncloa”, [There is not West Wing in the Moncloa] and I am co-author and coodinator of the book “Geografía del populismo”, [Geography of Populism], published by Tecnos.
