María del Pilar Alegría Continente (; born 1 November 1977) is a Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politician who served as minister of Education from July 2021 to December 2025, and as Spokesperson of the Government from November 2023 to December 2025.
Alegría was a deputy in the Congress of Deputies from 2008 to 2015, then Minister of Innovation, Research and Universities of Aragon in the Government of Aragon from 2015 to 2019. She was the PSOE candidate for mayor in the 2019 Zaragoza municipal election, in which her party won the plurality of votes, but other parties elected Jorge Azcón as mayor. In February 2020, she was named Government Delegate to Aragon.
In 2025, Alegría was proclaimed secretary-general of the PSOE in Aragon, and left her government roles in order to contest the 2026 Aragonese regional election.
Early and personal life Alegría was born in La Zaida, a village of around 500 inhabitants in the Province of Zaragoza. She said that her childhood home was largely non-political but slightly right-leaning, though her mother became a supporter of Pedro Sánchez.
Alegría qualified as a primary teacher through the University of Zaragoza and obtained a master's degree in education from the Complutense University of Madrid. Alegría never worked as a teacher, instead having jobs in agriculture and restaurants as well as within trade unions; at the end of the 1990s she joined the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) and through it the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). Alegría has kept her personal life private, and as of 2026 it was only known that she had a son of school age.
Political career Congress of Deputies and Minister of the Government of Aragon (2008–2019) Alegría entered national politics when she was elected to the Congress of Deputies as a deputy for Zaragoza province as the second placed candidate on the PSOE list.PSOE candidate list At 30, she was one of the youngest members of parliament.
In July 2015, Alegría was named Minister of Innovation, Research and Universities in the Government of Aragon, led by Javier Lambán. She managed to get the Pact for Science signed by all parties in the Cortes of Aragon, and in 2016 achieved a €780 million budget for the University of Zaragoza for the following four years. During the 2016 PSOE crisis, Alegría backed Susana Díaz over Pedro Sánchez.
Zaragoza City Council (2019–2020) Alegría was elected in September 2018 as the PSOE's candidate for mayor of Zaragoza in the 2019 election, having taken 49% in the first round of the primary election and her nearest opponent withdrawing from the second round. Her list was the most voted, and received 10 of the 31 seats on the council, but Jorge Azcón of the People's Party (PP) was installed as mayor with the support of his eight councillors, the six of Citizens and two of Vox, giving the right the majority of the council.
Minister of Education (2021–2025)
In February 2020, Alegría quit her council seat upon being named the Government Delegate to Aragon. She was named Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports in July 2021, in the government of prime minister Pedro Sánchez. Alegría's time in the ministry coincided with the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. She created 65,000 free state education places for under-4s, promoted education in co-official languages of Spain, and worked on reform of the university entrance exam.
Alegría was named at the top of the PSOE's list in Zaragoza for the 2023 Spanish general election. In November, having been named Spokesperson of the Government, she resigned her parliamentary seat to concentrate on her ministerial work.
Secretary of PSOE in Aragon (2025–) In January 2025, Alegría was proclaimed secretary general of the Socialists' Party of Aragon, succeeding Lambán after the withdrawal of the only other candidate. Eleven months later, Azcón as President of the Government of Aragon called a snap election; she left her ministerial post in order to contest the election as the PSOE candidate. In this election, the PSOE finished in second place, with 18 seats, matching its worst historical result, while the PP and Vox retained a majority of seats.
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