Editing Rodrigo Rato (section)

===Early beginnings===
In 1975 Rato became involved in the family business, first in Fuensanta, an Asturian mineral water company, and then in two Madrid construction firms. He also became involved in expanding the ''Cadena Rato'' chain of radio stations.

In 1977 Rato joined the newly formed [[People's Alliance (Spain)|Popular Alliance]] (AP), a party containing former ministers of Franco, founded by [[Manuel Fraga]], a close personal friend of his father. In December 1979 Rato was elected to the national executive committee, and became secretary of the AP economic commission. In February 1981 he became one of the party's five Secretaries-General, and was considered to be their economic expert. He supported tight controls on public spending, and an emphasis on the [[Supply-side economics|supply side]] of economics. In October 1982 he won election as an AP member of the [[Congress of Deputies]] for [[Cádiz (Congress of Deputies constituency)|Cádiz]] in spite of having no connection to this [[Andalusia|Andalucian]] town. He represented the area until 1989 and subsequently represented [[Madrid (Spanish Congress Electoral District)|Madrid]] from 1989 to 2000.

The 1982 election handed a loss to the AP, and marked the beginning of the long rule of the [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|PSOE]] and [[Felipe González]]. Until 1984 Rato was the Secretary of the parliamentary group. He then became their economic affairs spokesman where he impressed the party with his attacks on the PSOE's economic policies. He was seen to be on the [[Liberalism|liberal]] wing of the party.

When Fraga resigned from the leadership in December 1986 Rato backed [[Miguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón]] who lost the leadership race to [[Antonio Hernández Mancha]], but managed to keep his positions within the party. During these years he also continued his business career in Aguas de Fuensanta; having previously been the [[Chief executive officer|CEO]] of the company from 1978 to 1982, he served as chairman from 1985 to 1991.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://elpais.com/diario/2001/10/20/espana/1003528815_850215.html|date=20 October 2001|first=Xavier|last=Horcajo|title=Economía concedió una subvención de 22 millones a Aguas de Fuensanta|journal=[[El País]]}}</ref> In June 1989 Fraga again became interim President after the generally acknowledged failure of the leadership of Hernández Mancha. The party became the slightly more inclusive [[People's Party (Spain)|People's Party]] (PP). Rato was given shared responsibility over the elections with Francisco Álvarez-Cascos Fernández, the new party Secretary General. He was a close supporter of [[José María Aznar]], who was voted as the new PP leader on 4 September.

[[File:Wolfowitz,_Babacan_&_de_Rato_2006.jpg|left|thumb|Rodrigo de Rato (R), Turkey's Minister of Economy [[Ali Babacan]] (C), and [[World Bank]] President [[Paul Wolfowitz]] (L) shake hands after signing the memorandum of understanding for the 2009 IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings to be held in [[Turkey]].]]

On 29 October, the PP lost the general election, though his role in the campaign gave him national prominence. Afterwards he was appointed party spokesman. On 2 April 1990 his father sold the family stake in ''Cadena Rato'' for 5 billion [[Spanish peseta|pesetas]]. In June 1991 he stopped being President of Fuensanta, but remained on the board until 1993. On 6 June that year the PP lost another general election to PSOE. In the 12th National Congress in January 1996 he was confirmed as one of the three vice secretaries of the party.