Ángel Víctor Torres Pérez (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈaŋxel ˈβiɣtoɾ ˈtores ˈpeɾeθ]; born 30 March 1966) is a Spanish politician currently serving as minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory since 2023 and secretary-general of the Socialist Party of the Canaries (PSC–PSOE) since 2019. Before that, he served as president of the Canary Islands from 2019 to 2023.
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Early life and education
Born on 30 March 1966, in Arucas, on the island of Gran Canaria, Ángel Víctor Torres obtained a degree in Hispanic Philology at the University of La Laguna. He became a high school professor of language and literature in 1991.
Career
Torres entered politics in 1999 when he became a municipal Councillor in Arucas and was elected to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) list, served as mayor of the municipality in two spells (2003–2007 and 2011–2015).
From 2009 to 2011, he served as a member of the Congress of Deputies, taking in the vacant seat left by Juan Fernando López Aguilar in 2009, who was later elected to the European Parliament.
He was elected as the secretary-general of the PSC-PSOE in July 2017. Following the results of the 2019 Canarian regional election (in which Torres was elected member of the Parliament of the Canary Islands), Torres (representing the PSC-PSOE) reached a deal with the leaders of the New Canaries, Sí Podemos and Gomera Socialist Group (respectively, Román Rodríguez, Noemí Santana and Casimiro Curbelo) in June 2019 to form a regional government headed by Torres that would oust the government of the Canarian Coalition after a 26-year-long rule of the Canary Islands.