Tributes paid to socialist party ‘vanguard’ who has died aged 46 from congenital heart condition

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Carme Chacón, Spain’s first female defence minister and a prominent socialist party leader, has died aged 46.

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The party said Chacón died on Sunday from a congenital heart condition.

Chacón helped modernise the armed forces when she took the helm of the Ministry of Defence in 2008, in the government of prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chacoón at a press conference after a defence meeting in Palma de Mallorca, 2010. Photograph: AFP

Photos of Chacón reviewing the troops while heavily pregnant became a symbol of a new era in Spanish politics.

The socialist party (PSOE) said Chacón had always been “at the vanguard” of the party. “Despite her youth,” it said, Chacón had a “passion to defend the socialist ideals and, with time, she became a very important figure in our party”.

The party tweeted: “Dismayed by the premature departure of Carmen Chacón. Today all socialists mourn out of pain and helplessness.”

Before taking charge of the defence ministry, she had previously been minister of housing and a national lawmaker.

When Zapatero stepped down in 2011, she ran for the PSOE’s top leadership, although she eventually lost the vote to Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the former interior minister.

Between 2012 and 2016, she had been in charge of the party’s international relations before leaving politics to join a law firm in Madrid.

Chacón’s body was found by police in her home on Sunday after relatives called emergency services when they could not reach her. She was married and had a young son.