Misplaced Pages

Manuel Fraga: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 14:59, 9 November 2007 editEdward321 (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users36,434 edits he was a minister in the government of Franco so the catagory is appropriate← Previous edit Latest revision as of 18:05, 8 November 2024 edit undoTAnthony (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Page movers, File movers, New page reviewers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers, Template editors857,214 edits →Minister of the Interior during the Transition: Fix link(s) and genfixes, replaced: El Pais → El PaísTag: AWB 
(451 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|Spanish politician (1922–2012)}}
'''Manuel Fraga Iribarne''' (born ], ] at ], ]) is a ] ]. Fraga's career as one of the key political figures in Spain straddles both ]'s ] and the subsequent ]. He was the President of Galicia for 15 years.
{{family name hatnote|Fraga|Iribarne|lang=Spanish}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Manuel Fraga
|image = Mr. Manuel Fraga Iribarne (Spaanse minister), Bestanddeelnr 914-8477 (cropped).jpg
|caption =
|honorific-prefix = ]
|order = 4th
|office = President of the Regional Government of Galicia
|monarch = ]
|term_start = 5 February 1990
|term_end = 2 August 2005
|predecessor = ]
|successor = ]
|office3 = ]
|monarch3 = Juan Carlos I
|term_start3 = 15 December 1975
|term_end3 = 5 July 1976
|predecessor3 = ]
|successor3 = ]
|office4 = ]
|leader4 = ]
|term_start4 = 10 July 1962
|term_end4 = 29 October 1969
|predecessor4 = ]
|successor4 = ]
|office5 = Member of the ]
|term_start5 = 15 June 1977
|term_end5 = 3 July 1987
|constituency5 = ]
|office6 = Member of the ]
|term_start6 = 7 February 2006
|term_end6 = 27 September 2011
|office7 = Member of the ]
|term_start7 = 17 December 1989
|term_end7 = 7 February 2006
|constituency7 = ]
|birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1922|11|23}}
|birth_place = ], Spain
|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2012|1|15|1922|11|23}}
|death_place = ], Spain
|nationality = Spanish
|party = ] (1989–2012)<br>] (1977–1989)<br>] (1962–1977)
|otherparty = ]<br>]
|spouse = {{marriage|Carmen Estévez Eguiagaray|17 January 1948|23 February 1996|end={{abbr|d.|died}}}}
|children = 5, including ]
|residence = ], Spain
|alma_mater = ]
|signature = Manuel Fraga (f).svg
|website =
|footnotes =
}}
{{Conservatism in Spain|Politicians}}
'''Manuel Fraga Iribarne''' ({{IPA|es|maˈnwel ˈfɾaɣajɾiˈβaɾne}}; 23 November 1922 – 15 January 2012) was a Spanish professor and politician during the ], who was also one of the founders of the ]. Fraga was ] between 1962 and 1969, Ambassador to the United Kingdom between 1973 and 1975, ] in 1975, ] between 1975 and 1976, President of the People's Alliance/People's Party between 1979 and 1990 and ] between 1990 and 2005. He was also a ] and a ].


Fraga's career as one of the key political figures in Spain straddles both General ]'s ] and the subsequent transition to ]. He served as the ] from 1990 to 2005 and as a ] until November 2011.<ref> '']''. Retrieved 25 May 2013.</ref> Fraga is also one of the ].
==Under Generalissimo Franco's dictatorship==
]Trained in ], ] and ], Fraga began his political career in ], during Francisco Franco's authoritarian dictatorship. Between ] and ] he served as ] for ] and ], and played a major role in the revitalization of Spanish tourist industry, leading a campaign under the slogan ''Spain is different!''. In ] he dispelled fears of a ] after the ] by swimming in the contaminated water. He also introduced an ''a posteriori'' ] law. Former leader of the ] ] became his chief of personal security after his exile to Spain in 1975. Almirón, who was present during the 1976 ], was dismissed by Manuel Fraga in 1983 after that it became public, because of public indignation <ref name="ElMundo"> , '']'', December 28, 2006 {{es icon}} </ref>.


==Biography==
==The First Government of the Monarchy==
===Early life===
After a brief period as Spain's ambassador in the ], which ended with Franco's death (1975), Manuel Fraga was appointed vice president and ] (Ministro de Gobernación) in ], under ]'s government, the first with ] as ]. Until that moment, Fraga was known as a heavy-handed politician, though also seen as one of the reformers seeking a ] from within the regime, but the drastic measures he took as chief of state security during the first days of the ] deeply damaged his popularity. The phrase "¡La calle es mía!" ("The streets are mine!") was attributed to him. This phrase was his answer to complaints of police repression of street protests. He claimed that the streets did not belong to "people" but to the State.
Fraga was born in ], ], Galicia. Trained in law, economics and ], he began his political career in 1945, during Francisco Franco's reign.


Fraga married Carmen Estévez Eguiagaray, whom he had met in 1945 in the Faculty of Law, on 17 January 1948.<ref name=abc>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.abc.es/espana/abcp-manuely-nada-extrana-familia-201201210000_noticia.html|journal=]|title=Don Manuel y su nada extraña familia|date=21 January 2012 }}</ref> They had 5 children: ], Isabel, José Manuel, Ignacio and Adriana. He also adopted Amalia.<ref name=abc /><ref name=hermida /> Aside from ], Fraga also spoke ], ], ], ], ], ] and ].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/470081/0/idiomas/politicos/aprendizaje/#xtor=AD-15&xts=467263|journal=]|title=Los idiomas, la eterna asignatura pendiente de los políticos de todos los partidos|date=23 May 2009}}</ref>
==Alianza Popular==
]Fraga was one of the writers of the new Spanish ] approved in ]. Along with other former members of Franco's regime, he soon founded a right-wing party called ] (Alianza Popular - AP), led by Fraga himself as its president. The party was ignored in its first years, but after the ] crisis and breakup of the ], the moderate-conservative party which had won the first two democratic presidential elections, AP became the second party in Spain, and Fraga was considered ] to the ] government. Nevertheless, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party was enjoying great popularity and an absolute majority winning strike (in the 1982, 1986, and 1989 elections), as AP and its president were generally viewed as too ] to be an alternative. Following this critical development, Fraga resigned the presidency of the party in ].


=== Propaganda Minister during the dictatorship ===
==Partido Popular==
Fraga started in the Franco cabinet in 1962 as ]. He played a major role in the revitalization of ], leading a campaign under the slogan ''Spain is different!''. On 8 March 1966, he attempted to dispel fears of a ] after the ] by swimming in the contaminated water with the American ambassador, ].<ref>Paul Geitner, , ''The New York Times'', 12 September 2008, page A13.</ref>
Fraga came back in charge in ], determined to stop AP's crisis. With the addition of several lesser Christian democratic parties and the remnants of the Democratic Center Union, he refounded the People's Alliance as the ] (Partido Popular - PP). Later in the same year, Fraga encouraged the election of ] as the party's new president. Fraga was then appointed as honorary president of the PP.


Fraga authorized the execution of ]s under the Francoist State. A notable case is the execution of communist leader ], whom he called "that little gentleman" ({{langx|es|ese caballerete}}) in a press conference when asked about his detention and ]. His death sentence caused a large controversy outside of Spain. Grimau was executed by firing squad in 1963. Fraga never publicly apologized or expressed regret for Grimau's execution.
==President of Galicia==

]Manuel Fraga returned to his ] homeland in ], winning that year's presidential election by a landslide, as head of the ] (PPdeG). He remained in charge for almost 15 years until the PPdeG lost its overall majority in the Galician election of 2005. Fraga saw his credibility damaged in late ], when an oil tanker ship called ] sank near the Galician coast causing a massive oil spill that affected the shoreline in the northwest of the region. Fraga was said to be slow to react and unable, or even unwilling, to handle the situation. In ], a power struggle between factions of PPdeG further hurt the party's image. Subsequently, in the autonomous elections of ], Fraga and the PPdeG lost their absolute majority in the ], and despite winning elections with a 45% victory, a coalition of the left government of ] and left nationalists BNG was formed with socialist ] as the new president. Fraga remains in the political scene out of Galicia, as member of the Senate in Madrid. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, a 44 year old Galician Popular Party member is the PPdG head since late 2005.
Another notable case was the assassination by Spanish police of Enrique Ruano, a ] who opposed the Francoist State. Fraga telephoned Ruano's father and threatened to arrest his other daughter, Margot, who was also an anti-Francoist, unless she immediately stopped her activism. The then-director of Spanish newspaper '']'', Torcuato Luca de Tena, later confessed that Fraga ordered him to publish a manipulated copy of Ruano's personal diary in order to present Ruano as a mentally unstable person who killed himself.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://elpais.com/diario/2009/01/18/domingo/1232254357_850215.html|title=No se tiró, lo mataron|newspaper=El País|date=18 January 2009|access-date=29 December 2016|language=es}}</ref>

Later in the decade, Fraga established himself as one of the more prominent members of a reformist faction in the government who favoured opening up the government from above. He introduced an ''a posteriori'' censorship law, which was based on lifting pre-publication censorship and a reduction in its strictness. Additionally, a certain sexual liberality in films was popularly summarized in the expression ''Con Fraga hasta la braga''<ref name="Braga"> to ''Estudios sobre Buero Vallejo'', ed. Mariano de Paco, Alicante: Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, 2000.</ref><ref name="Capmany">Jaime Campmany attributes the doggerel to César González-Ruano. '''', ABC, 31 August 2002.</ref> ("With Fraga even the panties"). His departure from the government was prompted by the ]: the debt of the important publisher ] was tangled with members of the ], faction which Fraga opposed. When he published this information, the ] Franco expelled both sectors.

=== Ambassador to the United Kingdom ===
In 1973, Fraga (according to his memoirs he had been in the shortlist for becoming prime minister along ] and ]), accepted a proposal by Foreign Minister ] to become Ambassador to the United Kingdom, under the conditions of the stint no being longer then 2 years, having the ability to appoint a counsellor and a press officer and not being excessively constrained by the Francoist administration.<ref name=riomorillas>{{Cite book|url=https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/tesis/2013/hdl_10803_120547/madrm1de1.pdf|title=De la extrema derecha neofranquista a la derecha conservadora: los orígenes de alianza popular (1973-1979)|first=Miguel Ángel del|last=Río Morillas|publisher=]|pages=23; 30}}</ref> He also wanted to finish a book titled ''La España de los 70''.<ref name=riomorillas /> He served until 1975.

=== Minister of the Interior during the Transition ===
Following Franco's death on 20 November 1975, Fraga was appointed deputy prime minister (Vice President of the Government) and Interior Minister (Ministro de Gobernación) on 12 December 1975,<ref name=rulers>{{cite web|title=Spanish Ministries|url=http://rulers.org/spangovt.html|publisher=Rulers|access-date=28 April 2013}}</ref> under ], a post he held until 5 July 1976.<ref name=rulers/><ref>{{cite book|title=Democracy and the Rule of Law|url=https://www.questia.com/read/117627419/democracy-and-the-rule-of-law|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|page=287|author=José María Maravall|author2=Adam Przeworski|isbn=|access-date=4 September 2017|archive-date=28 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928215531/http://www.questia.com/read/117627419/democracy-and-the-rule-of-law|url-status=dead}}{{ISBN?}}</ref> This was the first government with ] as ].

By this time, Fraga believed Francoism could not be maintained forever. However, while he still favoured liberalization from above, his vision entailed an extremely gradual transition to full democracy. The drastic measures he took as interior minister and head of state security during the first days of the ] gave him a reputation for heavy-handedness, and deeply damaged his popularity. The phrase "¡La calle es mía!" ("The streets are mine!") was attributed to him<ref>{{in lang|es}} '']'' Retrieved 13 April 2009</ref> as his answer to complaints of police repression of street protests: he claimed that the streets did not belong to the "people" but to the state. He was known to be an admirer of ]. During a ] in ] (]) between police and striking workers, on Fraga's orders the police stormed into a packed church into which 4,000 demonstrators had retreated and went on a shooting spree, resulting in five dead and over 100 wounded.<ref name=rulers/>

=== Leader of People's Alliance ===
] holding a meeting with Fraga in ] in July 1983.]]
In 1976, Fraga and other former prominent members of the Francoist government founded the ] (AP), initially a loose confederation of political parties that later became a full-fledged party. Although he tried to brand the party as a mainstream conservative party, the people did not trust him. Besides the large number of former Francoists in the party, Fraga's performance as interior minister gave voters pause. Fraga was one of the writers of the new Spanish constitution approved in 1978 (the "]"). AP fared poorly in its first years, but following the 1982 crisis and the collapse of the ] (UCD), the party that—led by ]—had won the first two democratic elections, AP became the second biggest group in the ] after the ] (PSOE).

Fraga was reckoned as the ] to the PSOE government. The PSOE enjoyed great popularity and an absolute majority winning streak in the 1982 and 1986 elections, in part because Fraga and the AP were generally viewed as too ] to be an alternative. He was subject to a scandal in 1983, when it was reported that ], a former Argentine national police officer leader of the ], a far-right ] in Argentina, had become chief of his personal security team.{{Refn|group=n.|Because of the outcry by ], Almirón was arrested in 2006 in a ] in ] (]) and ended his political career.<ref name="ElMundo">{{in lang|es}} , '']'', 28 December 2006</ref>}}

=== Passing on the torch ===
Following a political crisis in AP in 1986 that saw former Secretary-General ] leaving the party and the breaking of the alliance with the christian-democrats of the ] (PDP) under the ] (CP), Fraga resigned from the presidency of AP in December 1986.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1986/12/02/portada/533862003_850215.html|title=Manuel Fraga dimite como presidente de Alianza Popular|newspaper=El País |date=December 1986 }}</ref> Replaced as party leader by ], Fraga ran first in the People's Alliance list for the ] and was subsequently elected MEP. He served as member of the ] until 1989.

With the AP in headlong decline, Fraga briefly resumed the leadership of the party in 1989. With the addition of several lesser Christian democratic parties and the remnants of the Democratic Center Union, he refounded the People's Alliance as the ] (PP). Later in the same year, Fraga encouraged the election of ] as the party's new president. Fraga was then appointed as honorary president of the PP.

=== Regional President of Galicia ===
] and Fraga in 1996]]
Manuel Fraga returned to his Galician homeland in 1989, and following the results of the ], with the ] (PPdG) winning a simple majority in the regional parliament, he became ].<ref></ref> He remained in charge for almost 15 years until 2005, when the PPdeG lost its overall majority.

Fraga was widowed on 23 February 1996.<ref name=chronology>{{Cite journal|url=https://elpais.com/politica/2012/01/09/actualidad/1326136716_845445.html|journal=]|title=89 intensos años|date=15 January 2012}}</ref><ref name=hermida>{{Cite journal|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1996/02/24/agenda/825116401_850215.html|journal=]|title=María del Carmen Estevez esposa de Manuel Fraga|first=Xosé|last=Hermida|date=24 February 1996}}</ref>

Fraga saw his credibility damaged in late 2002, when the oil tanker ship '']'' sank off the Galician coast. It caused a massive oil spill that affected the shoreline in the northwest of the region. Fraga was said to have been slow to react and unable, or unwilling, to handle the situation. In 2004, a power struggle between factions of PPdeG further hurt the party's image.

Subsequently, in the autonomous elections of 2005, Fraga and the PPdeG lost their absolute majority in the ]. Despite their obtaining a 45% plurality in the elections, a left-government coalition developed between the ] (PSdeG) and the ], making socialist ] the new president. Fraga remained on the political scene from Galicia, as a member of the Senate representing the ]. ], a member of the Galician Popular Party, succeeded Fraga as head of the PPdG on 15 January 2006.

=== Later life ===
] in Madrid (2008).]]
Fraga was designated as member of the ] by the ] in 2006.<ref name=chronology /> He served in the Upper House until 2011.

Fraga died on 15 January 2012 of a ].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16570637 |title=Spain Franco-era politician Fraga dies, aged 89 |work=] |date=16 January 2012 |access-date=20 May 2019 |publisher=]}}</ref> His funeral was attended by ] and ].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=464929&CategoryId=12395 |title=Spain's Crown Prince, PM Attend Funeral Mass for Manuel Fraga |newspaper=] |location=Madrid |access-date=20 May 2019 |date=16 January 2012 |archive-date=26 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226034208/http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=464929&CategoryId=12395 |url-status=dead }}</ref>


==Overview== ==Overview==
{{original research|date=April 2016}}
Fraga was one of the writers of the democratic constitution and spent part of his political career lessening the censorship law during dictatorship. However he has openly admitted admiration for General Franco and the regime in public, on several different occasions. He is renowned for his temper tantrums in public at not being referred to or addressed as ''Don Manuel''. He most famously shouted during a television interview, completely unaware the camera was filming and the show was being broadcast live on air. Manuel Fraga Iribarne was probably one of the most important and yet controversial politicians in modern Spain. During a talk he gave at Granada university in Summer 2004, he was cursed and ridiculed by a majority of the students who cried out "Francoist!" and "Murderer!". However there were some students who cheered and applauded Fraga followed by the fascist salute and the singing of the hymn ]. Despite their political differences, he maintains a friendship with ], himself of Galician descent.
], Spain.]]
Fraga was one of the writers of the democratic constitution and spent part of his political career lessening the censorship law during the latter years of the ]. However, he had openly admitted admiration for General Franco and the Francoist State in public on several occasions. He was renowned for his temper tantrums in public at not being referred to or addressed as ''Don Manuel''. He most famously shouted during a television interview, completely unaware the camera was filming and the show was being broadcast live on air. Fraga was probably one of the most important and yet controversial politicians in modern Spain.


To his supporters, Fraga was a Galician hero who throughout his rule, modernised Galicia and built up a fair level of tourism to the region. He built roads and motorways and in 2000, he approved the Galician Plan to build Spain's first high speed bullet train. However to his opponents he was an authoritarian relic of the Franco era who failed to lift Galicia and its people out of poverty and unemployment. To his supporters, Fraga was a Galician hero who throughout his rule, modernised Galicia and built up a fair level of tourism to the region{{citation needed|reason=when?? as Xunta's president or Franco's minister|date=October 2017}}. He built great roads and motorways and in 2000, he approved the Galician Plan to build Spain's first high speed bullet train.


To his opponents he was seen as a dinosaur from the Franco regime.<ref>{{Cite journal|page=7|first=Ádám|last=Anderle|author-link=Ádám Anderle
== References ==
|title=De la dictadura a la democracia: Manuel Fraga Iribarne|journal=Acta Hispanica|volume=XIII|location=Szeged|year=2008|issn=1416-7263
{{reflist}}
|doi=10.14232/actahisp.2008.13.7-12|doi-access=free}}</ref> He was a keen follower of ]'s ideas,<ref>{{Cite journal
|url=http://www.letraslibres.com/espana-mexico/revista/schmitt-en-espana|first=Jorge|last=Freire|date=16 May 2017|title=Schmitt en España
|journal=Letras Libres}}</ref> and granted the German political theorist honorary membership to the Institute of Political Studies in 1962,<ref>{{Cite journal|journal= Cuadernos de Estrategia|issn=1697-6924|issue=115|year=2002<!--|pages=57-78-->|title=Carl Schmitt. La paz del estado vigilante|first=José Luis|last=Calvo Albero|page=61}}</ref> in a ceremony where he praised him as a "revered master".<ref>{{Cite news|work=]|date=2 April 2006|url=https://elpais.com/diario/2006/04/02/domingo/1143949965_850215.html|title=La 'fiesta sagrada' de don Carlos
|first=Manuel|last=Rivas}}</ref> Fraga identified himself with the figure of ] in 1976 for the first time; this idea of identification between Cánovas and Fraga was reinforced by historiographical trends close to Fraga in the 1980s in order to commend his figure.<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=Revista de Estudios Políticos|title=The Fear of a 'Change out of Control': Fraga's Failed Turn during the Spanish Transition|issue=174|year=2016|first1=Juan María|last1=Sánchez-Prieto|first2=Guillermo|last2=Zafra|pages=315 & 327|url=https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/RevEsPol/article/view/53697/32427|issn=0048-7694|publisher=]|location=Madrid}}</ref> Despite their political differences, he developed a close friendship with ],<ref>{{Cite news|work=]|title=Manuel Fraga: el amigo capitalista de Fidel Castro|date=18 May 2014|first=Ricardo|last=Moncada Esquivel|url=http://www.elpais.com.co/entretenimiento/cultura/manuel-fraga-el-amigo-capitalista-de-fidel-castro.html}}</ref> himself of Galician descent, who met with Fraga in Galicia during a visit to Spain in 1992.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Cuba y la Unión Europea. Una perspectiva histórica|url=http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/latinoam/n54/n54a2.pdf|page=17|first=Mario|year=2012|issue=54|journal=Latinoamérica. Revista de estudios Latinoamericanos|issn=1665-8574|last=Ojeda Revah}}</ref>


== See also == ==In popular culture==
In 1962, a satirical magazine ''Ley Fraga'' was launched in Barcelona which was named after him.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Montserrat Lunati |title=Book review. Catalan Cartoons: A Cultural and Political History|journal=Hispanic Research Journal|year=2018|volume=19|issue=3|page=319 |doi=10.1080/14682737.2018.1467870|s2cid=194844851 }}</ref>
*], former leader of the ] and chief of Manuel Fraga's personal security

== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=n.}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|33em}}


==External links== ==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons category|Manuel Fraga Iribarne}}
* Antena3
* (in Galician) * (in Galician)
* (in English) * (in English)


{{start box}} {{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box | before = ]| title = ]|years=]-]| | after = ]}}
{{succession box | before = ] | title = Chairman of the ] | years = 1989&ndash;1990 | after = ]}} {{succession box | before =] | title = ] | years = 1962–1969 | after =] }}
{{succession box | before = Party Founder | title = Chairman of the ] | years = 1977&ndash;1987 | after = ]}} {{succession box | before =] | title = ] | years = 1975–1976 | after =] }}
{{succession box | before = ] | title = ] | years = 1975&ndash;1976 | after = ]}} {{succession box | before = ] | title = ] | years = 1975–1976 | after = ]}}
{{succession box | before =] | title = ] | years = 1962&ndash;1969 | after =] }} {{succession box | before = ]| title = ]|years=1990–2005| | after = ]}}
{{end box}} {{s-ppo}}
{{succession box | before = Party Founder | title = ] | years = 1977–1979 | after = ]}}
{{succession box | before = Office created | title = Leader of the ] in the ]| years = 1977–1982 | after = ]}}
{{succession box | before = ] | title = ] | years = 1979–1987 | after = ]}}
{{succession box | before = ]<br/><small>(As President of People's Alliance)</small> | title = ] | years = 1989–1990 | after = ]}}
{{succession box | before = ] | title = ] | years = 1988–2006 | after = ]}}
{{succession box | before = ] | title = Leader of the ] in the ]| years = 2005–2006 | after = ]}}
{{s-end}}

{{People's Party (Spain)}}
{{Presidents of Galicia}}
{{Leaders of the Opposition (Spain)}}
{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraga Iribarne, Manuel}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Fraga Iribarne, Manuel}}
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
]

]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]

Latest revision as of 18:05, 8 November 2024

Spanish politician (1922–2012) In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Fraga and the second or maternal family name is Iribarne.

The Most ExcellentManuel Fraga
4th President of the Regional Government of Galicia
In office
5 February 1990 – 2 August 2005
MonarchJuan Carlos I
Preceded byFernando González Laxe
Succeeded byEmilio Pérez Touriño
Minister of the Interior
In office
15 December 1975 – 5 July 1976
MonarchJuan Carlos I
Preceded byJose Garcia Hernandez
Succeeded byRodolfo Martín Villa
Minister of Information and Tourism
In office
10 July 1962 – 29 October 1969
LeaderFrancisco Franco
Preceded byGabriel Arias-Salgado
Succeeded byAlfredo Sánchez Bella
Member of the Congress of Deputies
In office
15 June 1977 – 3 July 1987
ConstituencyMadrid
Member of the Senate
In office
7 February 2006 – 27 September 2011
Member of the Parliament of Galicia
In office
17 December 1989 – 7 February 2006
ConstituencyLugo
Personal details
Born(1922-11-23)23 November 1922
Vilalba, Spain
Died15 January 2012(2012-01-15) (aged 89)
Madrid, Spain
Political partyPeople's Party (1989–2012)
People's Alliance (1977–1989)
FET y de las JONS (1962–1977)
Other political
affiliations		People's Alliance
Democratic Reform
Spouse Carmen Estévez Eguiagaray ​ ​(m. 1948; d. 1996)​
Children5, including Carmen
Residence(s)Madrid, Spain
Alma materUniversity of Santiago de Compostela
Signature
Part of a series on
Conservatism in Spain
Ideologies
Principles
History
Intellectuals
Literature
Politicians
Commentators
PartiesActive

Defunct

Organisations
Media
Related topics

Manuel Fraga Iribarne (Spanish pronunciation: [maˈnwel ˈfɾaɣajɾiˈβaɾne]; 23 November 1922 – 15 January 2012) was a Spanish professor and politician during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, who was also one of the founders of the People's Party. Fraga was Minister of Information and Tourism between 1962 and 1969, Ambassador to the United Kingdom between 1973 and 1975, Minister of the Interior in 1975, Second Deputy Prime Minister between 1975 and 1976, President of the People's Alliance/People's Party between 1979 and 1990 and President of the Regional Government of Galicia between 1990 and 2005. He was also a Member of the Congress of Deputies and a Senator.

Fraga's career as one of the key political figures in Spain straddles both General Francisco Franco's regime and the subsequent transition to representative democracy. He served as the President of the Regional Government of Galicia from 1990 to 2005 and as a Senator until November 2011. Fraga is also one of the Fathers of the Constitution.

Biography

Early life

Fraga was born in Vilalba, Lugo Province, Galicia. Trained in law, economics and political science, he began his political career in 1945, during Francisco Franco's reign.

Fraga married Carmen Estévez Eguiagaray, whom he had met in 1945 in the Faculty of Law, on 17 January 1948. They had 5 children: Carmen, Isabel, José Manuel, Ignacio and Adriana. He also adopted Amalia. Aside from Spanish, Fraga also spoke French, English, Italian, German, Portuguese, Galician and Basque.

Propaganda Minister during the dictatorship

Fraga started in the Franco cabinet in 1962 as Minister of Information and tourism. He played a major role in the revitalization of Spanish tourist industry, leading a campaign under the slogan Spain is different!. On 8 March 1966, he attempted to dispel fears of a nuclear accident after the Palomares hydrogen bombs incident by swimming in the contaminated water with the American ambassador, Angier Biddle Duke.

Fraga authorized the execution of political prisoners under the Francoist State. A notable case is the execution of communist leader Julián Grimau, whom he called "that little gentleman" (Spanish: ese caballerete) in a press conference when asked about his detention and death sentence. His death sentence caused a large controversy outside of Spain. Grimau was executed by firing squad in 1963. Fraga never publicly apologized or expressed regret for Grimau's execution.

Another notable case was the assassination by Spanish police of Enrique Ruano, a student activist who opposed the Francoist State. Fraga telephoned Ruano's father and threatened to arrest his other daughter, Margot, who was also an anti-Francoist, unless she immediately stopped her activism. The then-director of Spanish newspaper ABC, Torcuato Luca de Tena, later confessed that Fraga ordered him to publish a manipulated copy of Ruano's personal diary in order to present Ruano as a mentally unstable person who killed himself.

Later in the decade, Fraga established himself as one of the more prominent members of a reformist faction in the government who favoured opening up the government from above. He introduced an a posteriori censorship law, which was based on lifting pre-publication censorship and a reduction in its strictness. Additionally, a certain sexual liberality in films was popularly summarized in the expression Con Fraga hasta la braga ("With Fraga even the panties"). His departure from the government was prompted by the MATESA affair: the debt of the important publisher Manuel Salvat Dalmau was tangled with members of the Opus Dei, faction which Fraga opposed. When he published this information, the caudillo Franco expelled both sectors.

Ambassador to the United Kingdom

In 1973, Fraga (according to his memoirs he had been in the shortlist for becoming prime minister along Carrero Blanco and Raimundo Fernández Cuesta), accepted a proposal by Foreign Minister Laureano López Rodó to become Ambassador to the United Kingdom, under the conditions of the stint no being longer then 2 years, having the ability to appoint a counsellor and a press officer and not being excessively constrained by the Francoist administration. He also wanted to finish a book titled La España de los 70. He served until 1975.

Minister of the Interior during the Transition

Following Franco's death on 20 November 1975, Fraga was appointed deputy prime minister (Vice President of the Government) and Interior Minister (Ministro de Gobernación) on 12 December 1975, under Carlos Arias Navarro, a post he held until 5 July 1976. This was the first government with Juan Carlos I as chief of state.

By this time, Fraga believed Francoism could not be maintained forever. However, while he still favoured liberalization from above, his vision entailed an extremely gradual transition to full democracy. The drastic measures he took as interior minister and head of state security during the first days of the Spanish transition to democracy gave him a reputation for heavy-handedness, and deeply damaged his popularity. The phrase "¡La calle es mía!" ("The streets are mine!") was attributed to him as his answer to complaints of police repression of street protests: he claimed that the streets did not belong to the "people" but to the state. He was known to be an admirer of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo. During a clash at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Vitoria (Euskadi) between police and striking workers, on Fraga's orders the police stormed into a packed church into which 4,000 demonstrators had retreated and went on a shooting spree, resulting in five dead and over 100 wounded.

Leader of People's Alliance

Prime Minister Felipe González holding a meeting with Fraga in La Moncloa in July 1983.

In 1976, Fraga and other former prominent members of the Francoist government founded the People's Alliance (AP), initially a loose confederation of political parties that later became a full-fledged party. Although he tried to brand the party as a mainstream conservative party, the people did not trust him. Besides the large number of former Francoists in the party, Fraga's performance as interior minister gave voters pause. Fraga was one of the writers of the new Spanish constitution approved in 1978 (the "Fathers of the Constitution"). AP fared poorly in its first years, but following the 1982 crisis and the collapse of the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD), the party that—led by Adolfo Suárez—had won the first two democratic elections, AP became the second biggest group in the Congress of Deputies after the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE).

Fraga was reckoned as the Leader of the Opposition to the PSOE government. The PSOE enjoyed great popularity and an absolute majority winning streak in the 1982 and 1986 elections, in part because Fraga and the AP were generally viewed as too reactionary to be an alternative. He was subject to a scandal in 1983, when it was reported that Rodolfo Almirón, a former Argentine national police officer leader of the Triple A, a far-right death squad in Argentina, had become chief of his personal security team.

Passing on the torch

Following a political crisis in AP in 1986 that saw former Secretary-General Jorge Verstrynge leaving the party and the breaking of the alliance with the christian-democrats of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) under the People's Coalition (CP), Fraga resigned from the presidency of AP in December 1986. Replaced as party leader by Antonio Hernández Mancha, Fraga ran first in the People's Alliance list for the 1987 European election and was subsequently elected MEP. He served as member of the European Parliament until 1989.

With the AP in headlong decline, Fraga briefly resumed the leadership of the party in 1989. With the addition of several lesser Christian democratic parties and the remnants of the Democratic Center Union, he refounded the People's Alliance as the People's Party (PP). Later in the same year, Fraga encouraged the election of José María Aznar as the party's new president. Fraga was then appointed as honorary president of the PP.

Regional President of Galicia

José María Aznar and Fraga in 1996

Manuel Fraga returned to his Galician homeland in 1989, and following the results of the 1989 regional election, with the People's Party in Galicia (PPdG) winning a simple majority in the regional parliament, he became President of the Xunta of Galicia. He remained in charge for almost 15 years until 2005, when the PPdeG lost its overall majority.

Fraga was widowed on 23 February 1996.

Fraga saw his credibility damaged in late 2002, when the oil tanker ship Prestige sank off the Galician coast. It caused a massive oil spill that affected the shoreline in the northwest of the region. Fraga was said to have been slow to react and unable, or unwilling, to handle the situation. In 2004, a power struggle between factions of PPdeG further hurt the party's image.

Subsequently, in the autonomous elections of 2005, Fraga and the PPdeG lost their absolute majority in the Parliament of Galicia. Despite their obtaining a 45% plurality in the elections, a left-government coalition developed between the Socialists' Party of Galicia (PSdeG) and the Galician Nationalist Bloc, making socialist Emilio Pérez Touriño the new president. Fraga remained on the political scene from Galicia, as a member of the Senate representing the Parliament of Galicia. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, a member of the Galician Popular Party, succeeded Fraga as head of the PPdG on 15 January 2006.

Later life

Manuel Fraga (Third from left) on a convention on climate change of the European People's Party in Madrid (2008).

Fraga was designated as member of the Senate by the Parliament of Galicia in 2006. He served in the Upper House until 2011.

Fraga died on 15 January 2012 of a respiratory disease. His funeral was attended by Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia.

Overview

This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (April 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Statue of Fraga in Cambados, Spain.

Fraga was one of the writers of the democratic constitution and spent part of his political career lessening the censorship law during the latter years of the Francoist State. However, he had openly admitted admiration for General Franco and the Francoist State in public on several occasions. He was renowned for his temper tantrums in public at not being referred to or addressed as Don Manuel. He most famously shouted during a television interview, completely unaware the camera was filming and the show was being broadcast live on air. Fraga was probably one of the most important and yet controversial politicians in modern Spain.

To his supporters, Fraga was a Galician hero who throughout his rule, modernised Galicia and built up a fair level of tourism to the region. He built great roads and motorways and in 2000, he approved the Galician Plan to build Spain's first high speed bullet train.

To his opponents he was seen as a dinosaur from the Franco regime. He was a keen follower of Carl Schmitt's ideas, and granted the German political theorist honorary membership to the Institute of Political Studies in 1962, in a ceremony where he praised him as a "revered master". Fraga identified himself with the figure of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo in 1976 for the first time; this idea of identification between Cánovas and Fraga was reinforced by historiographical trends close to Fraga in the 1980s in order to commend his figure. Despite their political differences, he developed a close friendship with Fidel Castro, himself of Galician descent, who met with Fraga in Galicia during a visit to Spain in 1992.

In popular culture

In 1962, a satirical magazine Ley Fraga was launched in Barcelona which was named after him.

Notes

  1. Because of the outcry by Argentinean Justice, Almirón was arrested in 2006 in a subsidized apartment in Torrent (Valencia) and ended his political career.

References

  1. Politics: Obituaries The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
  2. ^ "Don Manuel y su nada extraña familia". ABC. 21 January 2012.
  3. ^ Hermida, Xosé (24 February 1996). "María del Carmen Estevez esposa de Manuel Fraga". El País.
  4. "Los idiomas, la eterna asignatura pendiente de los políticos de todos los partidos". 20minutos.es. 23 May 2009.
  5. Paul Geitner, "Spanish Town Struggles to Forget Its Moment on the Brink of a Nuclear Cataclysm", The New York Times, 12 September 2008, page A13.
  6. "No se tiró, lo mataron". El País (in Spanish). 18 January 2009. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
  7. Note to Estudios sobre Buero Vallejo, ed. Mariano de Paco, Alicante: Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, 2000.
  8. Jaime Campmany attributes the doggerel to César González-Ruano. La falda de Marilyn, ABC, 31 August 2002.
  9. ^ Río Morillas, Miguel Ángel del. De la extrema derecha neofranquista a la derecha conservadora: los orígenes de alianza popular (1973-1979) (PDF). Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. pp. 23, 30.
  10. ^ "Spanish Ministries". Rulers. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  11. José María Maravall; Adam Przeworski (2003). Democracy and the Rule of Law. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 287. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  12. (in Spanish) 25 January 2006 "¡La calle es mía!" El País Retrieved 13 April 2009
  13. (in Spanish) "Detienen en Valencia al ex dirigente de la Triple A Argentina Almirón Sena" (Ex director of Triple A in Argentina, Almirón Sena, arrested in a subsidized apartment in Valencia", El Mundo, 28 December 2006
  14. "Manuel Fraga dimite como presidente de Alianza Popular". El País. December 1986.
  15. 1989 Galician election
  16. ^ "89 intensos años". El País. 15 January 2012.
  17. "Spain Franco-era politician Fraga dies, aged 89". BBC News. BBC. 16 January 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  18. "Spain's Crown Prince, PM Attend Funeral Mass for Manuel Fraga". Latin American Herald Tribune. Madrid. 16 January 2012. Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  19. Anderle, Ádám (2008). "De la dictadura a la democracia: Manuel Fraga Iribarne". Acta Hispanica. XIII. Szeged: 7. doi:10.14232/actahisp.2008.13.7-12. ISSN 1416-7263.
  20. Freire, Jorge (16 May 2017). "Schmitt en España". Letras Libres.
  21. Calvo Albero, José Luis (2002). "Carl Schmitt. La paz del estado vigilante". Cuadernos de Estrategia (115): 61. ISSN 1697-6924.
  22. Rivas, Manuel (2 April 2006). "La 'fiesta sagrada' de don Carlos". El País.
  23. Sánchez-Prieto, Juan María; Zafra, Guillermo (2016). "The Fear of a 'Change out of Control': Fraga's Failed Turn during the Spanish Transition". Revista de Estudios Políticos (174). Madrid: Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales: 315 & 327. ISSN 0048-7694.
  24. Moncada Esquivel, Ricardo (18 May 2014). "Manuel Fraga: el amigo capitalista de Fidel Castro". El País.
  25. Ojeda Revah, Mario (2012). "Cuba y la Unión Europea. Una perspectiva histórica" (PDF). Latinoamérica. Revista de estudios Latinoamericanos (54): 17. ISSN 1665-8574.
  26. Montserrat Lunati (2018). "Book review. Catalan Cartoons: A Cultural and Political History". Hispanic Research Journal. 19 (3): 319. doi:10.1080/14682737.2018.1467870. S2CID 194844851.

External links

Political offices
Preceded byGabriel Arias-Salgado Minister of Information and Tourism
1962–1969 		Succeeded byAlfredo Sánchez Bella
Preceded byRafael Cabello de Alba Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain
1975–1976 		Succeeded byAlfonso Ossorio
Preceded byJose Garcia Hernandez Minister of the Interior
1975–1976 		Succeeded byRodolfo Martín Villa
Preceded byFernando Ignacio González Laxe President of the Regional Government of Galicia
1990–2005 		Succeeded byEmilio Pérez Touriño
Party political offices
Preceded byParty Founder Secretary-General of People's Alliance
1977–1979 		Succeeded byJorge Verstrynge
Preceded byOffice created Leader of the People's Alliance Group in the Congress of Deputies
1977–1982 		Succeeded byMiguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón
Preceded byFélix Pastor Ridruejo President of People's Alliance
1979–1987 		Succeeded byAntonio Hernandez Mancha
Preceded byAntonio Hernández Mancha
(As President of People's Alliance) 		President of the People's Party
1989–1990 		Succeeded byJose Maria Aznar
Preceded byGerardo Fernández Albor President of the People's Party of Galicia
1988–2006 		Succeeded byAlberto Núñez Feijoo
Preceded byJaime Pita Leader of the People's Party Group in the Parliament of Galicia
2005–2006 		Succeeded byJosé Manuel Barreiro
People's Party (Spain)
Leadership
Presidents
Secretaries General
Organization
Predecessors
Regional wings
Affiliated organizations
Alliances
Congresses
AP
PP
Conservatism portal
Presidents of the Regional Government of Galicia
Leaders of the Opposition of Spain
Categories: