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SPAIN'S FIRST FEMALE DEFENCE MINISTER CARME CHACON DIES AGED 46

FILE - In this April 14, 2008 file photo, Spain's Defense Minister Carme Chacon reviews troops in Madrid. Chacon, Spain's first female defense minister and a prominent socialist party leader, has died. She was 46. Chacon helped modernize Spain's armed forces when she took the helm of the Ministry of Defense in 2008, in the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Photos of Chacon reviewing the troops while heavily pregnant became a symbol of a new era in Spanish politics. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)

Carme Chacon, Spain's first female defence minister and a prominent socialist party leader, has died aged 46.
Ms Chacon died from a heart condition she had had since birth, the party said in a statement.
On Sunday the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo immediately posted a tweet offering his condolences to her family and colleagues.
She helped modernise Spain's armed forces when she took the helm of the ministry of defence in 2008, in the government of prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Photos of Ms Chacon reviewing the troops while heavily pregnant became a symbol of a new era in Spanish politics.
Spain's socialist party, or PSOE, said in a statement that Ms Chacon had always been "at the vanguard" of the party.
"Despite her youth," the statement said, Ms Chacon had a "passion to defend the socialist ideals and, with time, she became a very important figure in our party".
Before taking charge of the defence ministry, she had previously been minister of housing and a national politician.
When Mr Zapatero stepped down in 2011, she ran for the PSOE's top leadership, although she eventually lost the vote to former interior minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.
Between 2012 and 2016 she had been in charge of the party's international relations, before she left politics to join a law firm in Madrid.
Ms Chacon'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.

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