Third Deputy Prime Minister of Spain
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The third deputy prime minister of Spain, officially Third Vice President of the Government of Spain ( es, Vicepresidencia Tercera del Gobierno de España), is a senior member of the
Government of Spain gl, Goberno de España eu, Espainiako Gobernua , image = , caption = Logo of the Government of Spain , headerstyle = background-color: #efefef , label1 = Role , data1 = Executive power , label2 = Established , da ...
. The office of the third deputy prime minister is not a permanent position, existing only at the discretion of the
prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
. It is a constitutional office because it is foreseen in the
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...
when it provides for the possibility of existing more than one vice presidency. It rarely exists: three times in the last years of the Franco dictatorship and three times in the current democratic period (1977–1978; 2009–2011; and since 2020). The office of third deputy prime minister does not possess special constitutional powers beyond its responsibility as a member of the
Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...
. The position is regulated in the Government Act of 1997 and it only specifies that the raison d'être of the office is to replace the prime minister when the office is vacant, or the premier is absence or ill. The third deputy prime minister only assume this responsibility if the
first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
and
second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...
deputies could not do it.


History

Like the position of second deputy prime minister, the office of third deputy prime minister was created in January 1974, although its legal framework dates back to the Organic Act of the State of 1967. The first person to hold this position was Licinio de la Fuente, who also held the
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
portfolio. De la Fuente distanced himself greatly from Prime Minister Arias Navarro, strongly criticizing that the position of third deputy PM was a symbolic position that did not possess any extra powers. This distancing increased when the prime minister refused to create a Government Delegated Committee to deal with social issues, a committee that De la Fuente wanted to chair. After many arguments with the government members and the Prime Minister, De la Fuente resigned on March 5, 1975. De la Fuente was replaced by Fernando Suárez González as both Third Deputy and Labour Minister and he managed to pass the pending laws of De la Fuente. A few months later, Arias Navarro appointed Juan Miguel Villar Mir as Third Deputy, assuming also the portfolios of Economy and Finance.
Adolfo Suárez Adolfo Suárez González, 1st Duke of Suárez (; 25 September 1932 – 23 March 2014) was a Spanish lawyer and politician. Suárez was Spain's first democratically elected prime minister since the Second Spanish Republic and a key figure in th ...
did not use this position until his second term, in 1977, appointing Third DPM to Fernando Abril Martorell. The official title of Abril Martorell was "Deputy Prime Minister for Political Affairs" responsible mainly for the relations between the Government and the Parliament. The position was not used for more than 30 years, until 2009 when Prime Minister Zapatero appointed Manuel Chaves as Third DPM and Minister of Territorial Policy. Chaves left the office in 2011 when he was promoted to Second DPM. The conservative PM
Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a vote of no confidence ousted his government. On 5 June 2018, he announced his resignation as People's Party lead ...
never used this position, and prime minister
Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...
did not use it in his first government, but he did it in the second one. Sánchez appointed economic affairs minister
Nadia Calviño Nadia María Calviño Santamaría (born 3 October 1968) is a Spanish economist and civil servant who serves as First Deputy Prime Minister of Spain since July 2021 and as Minister of Economy since 2018 under prime minister Pedro Sánchez. In 20 ...
as Third DPM in 2020 until 2021, when she promoted her to Second DPM and appointed Labour Minister
Yolanda Díaz Yolanda Díaz Pérez (born 6 May 1971) is a Spanish politician and lawyer specialising in labour law, currently serving as Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain, Second Deputy Prime Minister since 2021 and Ministry of Labour (Spain), Minister of ...
as Third DPM.


List of officeholders

Office name: *Third Vice Presidency of the Government (1974–1975; 1977–1978; 2009–2011; 2020–present) *Vice Presidency of the Government for Economic Affairs (1975–1976)


See also

*
Deputy Prime Minister of Spain The first deputy prime minister of Spain, officially First Vice President of the Government of Spain ( es, Vicepresidencia Primera del Gobierno de España), is the second in command to the prime minister of Spain, assuming its duties when the Pr ...
*
Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain The second deputy prime minister of Spain, officially Second Vice President of the Government of Spain ( es, Vicepresidencia Segunda del Gobierno de España), is a senior member of the Government of Spain. The office of the Second Deputy Prime Mi ...
*
Fourth Deputy Prime Minister of Spain The fourth deputy prime minister, officially Fourth Vice President of the Government ( es, Vicepresidencia Cuarta del Gobierno de España), is a senior member of the Government of Spain. The office of the Fourth Deputy Prime Minister is not a perm ...


References

{{Departments and agencies of the Government of Spain Lists of political office-holders in Spain Deputy Prime Ministers of Spain