COMMUNITY OF MADRID

The 'Community of Madrid' (Spanish: ''Comunidad de Madrid'') is one of Spain's seventeen autonomous communities, located in the centre of the country. It is coterminous with the province of Madrid, and contains the city of Madrid, which is the capital of the community, the province, and the country.
The Community is bordered by the autonomous communities of Castile-Leon (provinces of Ávila and Segovia) and Castile-La Mancha (provinces of Guadalajara, Cuenca, and Toledo).
Over half of the population live in the capital. Other historically or commercially important cities located in the community include Alcalá de Henares, Coslada, Torrejón de Ardoz, Getafe, Móstoles, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Navalcarnero and Aranjuez. There are 179 municipalities in Madrid. See List of municipalities in Madrid.
Previously to its recognition as autonomous community, the province of Madrid was part of Castile "The New" (now Castile-La Mancha). When the autonomous communities were founded under the provisions of the 1978 Constitution, Madrid was made into its own community because of great economic disparity between it and the Castilian-Manchego hinterland. The Community of Madrid was constituted by law on 25 February 1983, and its statute of autonomy was approved on 1 March of the same year.

Contents

Regional Government

Economics

External links

Regional Government

The citizens of the Autonomous Region of Madrid are represented by 120 elected representatives (diputados). These sit in the Asamblea de Madrid (autonomous parliament). The President of the Autonomous Region of Madrid is the leader of the largest political party after each election; usually held every four years. The current regional President is Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma (PP), the Spanish centre-right party which gained an overwhelming majority in the elections held May 27th 2007. Since the regional elections held in October 2003, she is the only female regional president in Spain.

Economics

According to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística Madrid was in 2006 the Spanish region with the highest GDP per capita (28.850€), followed by Basque Country (28.346€), Navarra (27.861€) and Catalonia (26.124€). Unemployment figures are among the lowest in the country (6,6% in the first quarter 2007 vs 8,5% Spain's average).

External links

★ Madrid Autonomous Community

★ Madrid Leisure Guide

★ Madrid Metro Network

★ Madrid Barajas International Airport

★ A guide to the natural history of Madrid