Ramón Tamames

Ramón Tamames Gómez (born 1 November 1933) is a Spanish economist and former politician.

He was a member of the Congress of Deputies and the City Council of Madrid in the early years after the Spanish transition to democracy. A long-term member of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), he left in 1982 and founded the Progressive Federation (FP) and the United Left (IU). He left politics in 1989 after several months with the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS). In 2023, aged 89, he was proposed as a candidate for prime minister of Spain in a vote of no confidence tabled by Vox.

Biography Tamames was born in Madrid as one of five children in a wealthy family in which his father was a surgeon. Suffering from anaemia, he spent some of his early years with his grandparents in rural Extremadura. His mother died by suicide when he was seven, due to her husband's alleged infidelities. He was educated at the Lycée Français de Madrid before obtaining degrees in law and economics in the city, concluding his studies at the London School of Economics. He had three children with his wife, Carmen Prieto-Castro.

In February 2023, aged 89, Tamames put himself forward to be an independent candidate for prime minister if a Vox-proposed motion of no confidence in the government of Pedro Sánchez were successful. The motion failed on 22 March with 52 votes in favour (Vox plus former Citizens legislator Pablo Cambronero), 91 abstentions (People's Party plus one independent) and 201 votes against.