Departures of note

Fátima Báñez was a Spanish economist and People's Party politician who served as Minister of Employment and Social Security from 2011 to 2018, the first woman to hold that post and the longest-serving minister in the portfolio. Born in San Juan del Puerto, Huelva, in 1967, she studied economics and business at ICADE and earned a master's in public management from IESE. A close collaborator of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, she oversaw the 2012 labour reform that generalized severance pay of 33 days per year worked, and later a pension reform, during the depths of the economic crisis. She was linked to the CEOE employers' association from 2020. She died in a train accident in Urda, Toledo, in October 2026, at age 59.