Leopoldo Ramón Pedro Calvo-Sotelo y Bustelo, 1st Marquess of Ría de Ribadeo (; 14 April 1926 – 3 May 2008), usually known as Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, was

Prime Minister of Spain The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government (), is the head of government of Spain. The prime minister nominates the Spanish government departments, ministers and chairs the Council of Ministers (Spain), Council of Mini ...

between 1981 and 1982.

Early life and career

Calvo-Sotelo was born into a prominent political family in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

on 14 April 1926 with his father, Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo, and his mother, Mercedes Bustelo Márquez. The assassination of his uncle, José Calvo Sotelo, who had been

finance minister A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

under

Miguel Primo de Rivera Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, Grandee, GE (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930), was a Spanish dictator and military officer who ruled as prime minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during the last years of the Resto ...

, was a key event leading up to the Spanish Civil War. Calvo-Sotelo graduated as a civil engineer from the School of Civil Engineers of Madrid now part of the

Technical University of Madrid The Technical University of Madrid or sometimes called Polytechnic University of Madrid (, UPM) is a public university, located in Madrid, Spain. It was founded in 1971 as the result of merging different Technical Schools of Engineering and Arc ...

, working in the area of applications of

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

to the industry. He was the president of

Renfe Renfe (, ), officially Renfe-Operadora, is Spain's national state-owned railway company. It was created in 2005 upon the split of the former Spanish National Railway Network (RENFE) into the Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias ( ...

(the Spanish national railroad network) between 1967 and 1968. Calvo-Sotelo was elected solicitor (Deputy) of Franco's Cortes, representing industrialists in the Union of Chemical Industries, in 1971. A monarchist, Sotelo was one of the founders of an association of politicians, mostly of

Right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

ists and Center Rightists, which disguised as the Fedisa publishing firm helped Spain's peaceful transition into democracy.

Political career

Calvo-Sotelo was designated Minister of Commerce by

Carlos Arias Navarro Carlos Arias Navarro, 1st Marquess of Arias Navarro (11 December 1908 – 27 November 1989) was the Prime Minister of Spain during the final years of the Francoist dictatorship and the beginning of the Spanish transition to democracy. Arias ...

to be in the first government of the Monarchy (December 1975 – July 1976). He advocated a true transition to democracy instead of mere superficial changes that politicians like Navarro planned. Calvo-Sotelo was kept in the cabinet of

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 of Spain, prime minister since the Second Spanish Republi ...

upon his succession to premiership in 1976 and directed several centre-right and centre-left political associations into one party, the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD). Calvo-Sotelo was part of the Tacito group in the cabinet along with

Eduardo Carriles Eduardo Carriles (1923–2020) was a Spanish lawyer, businessman and politician who served as the minister of finance between 1976 and 1977. Biography Carriles was born in Santander on 28 November 1923. He was a lawyer by profession. He served ...

, Andrés Reguera, Landelino Lavilla, Enrique de la Mata, Marcelino Oreja and Alfonso Osorio. The UCD won in both the June 1977 and the March 1979 elections and Calvo-Sotelo was elected MP for

President of the Government of Spain

Suárez decided to keep him in the Cabinet, first from 1978 to 1980 as Minister for Relations of the European Economic Community, then as Second Vicepresident in charge of economic affairs. After the resignation of Suárez on 29 January 1981, he was supposed to be appointed Prime Minister () on 23 February, and advocated Spain's proposed entry into

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as soon as possible. However, on that date a session of the Congress of Deputies was interrupted by the attempted coup of

23-F A coup d'état was attempted in Spain in February 1981 by elements of the Civil Guard (Spain), Civil Guard and the Spanish Armed Forces, Spanish military. The failure of the coup marked the last serious attempt to revert Spain to a Francoist gov ...

. After the failed coup, his appointment as Prime Minister was confirmed on 25 February by the vote of all the UCD members of the congress and 21 others as well, giving him a majority of 186 to 158. Unlike his predecessors, Sotelo was more inclined to reverse Spain's historically hostile stance towards

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. However, his foreign minister José Pedro Pérez-Llorca would prevent Sotelo's government from recognizing Israel, citing fears of an Arab oil embargo. Splits in the UCD group led to the formation of three rival parties, the Democratic Action Party (Partido de Acción Democrática/PAD), which soon merged with the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * List of political parties in Spain, political party ...

(PSOE), the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) and Democratic Popular Party (PDP), resulting in the UCD being unable to count on sufficient support in the legislature. Fresh elections were called, resulting in a heavy defeat for the UCD, which won only 12 seats at the 1982 election compared to 168 in 1979. He served as Prime Minister until 1 December 1982 and was succeeded by the socialist

Felipe González Felipe González Márquez (; born 5 March 1942) is a retired Spanish politician who was Prime Minister of Spain from 1982 to 1996 and leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party from 1974 to 1997. He is the longest-serving democratically- ...

Later years

In 2002, Calvo-Sotelo was raised into the

Spanish nobility The Spanish nobility are people who possess a title of nobility confirmed by the Spanish Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, as well as those individuals appointed to one of Spain's three highest orders of knightho ...

by King Juan Carlos of Spain and given the hereditary title of '' Marqués de la Ría de Ribadeo'' (''Marquess of Ría de Ribadeo''), together with the dignity '' Grande de España'' (English: Grandee of Spain), this in honour for his service. Calvo-Sotelo was also a member of the Club of Madrid and of the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering. He wrote several political autobiographical books: '' Memoria viva de la transición'' (Living memory of the Spanish transition), '' Papeles de un cesante'' (Papers from an unemployed person), and '' Pláticas de familia (1878–2003)'' (Family talks (1878-2003)). He died of

natural causes In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distinc ...

at his home in

Pozuelo de Alarcón Pozuelo de Alarcón () is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Bordering the Moncloa-Aravaca district of Madrid proper to its west, Pozuelo de Alarcón is surrounded by large Mediterranean pine-tree forests: the Casa de Campo, the M ...

, on 3 May 2008 aged 82.

Personal life

He was married to María del Pilar Ibáñez-Martín y Mellado and had eight children: * Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo e Ibáñez-Martín (born 4 September 1957), 2nd Marquess of Ría de Ribadeo, married to Cristina Egea y Gutiérrez-Cortines. * Juan Calvo-Sotelo e Ibáñez-Martín (born 14 November 1958), married to Lucía Fernández y Cartuxo * María del Pilar Calvo-Sotelo e Ibáñez-Martín (born 20 October 1959), married to Carlos Delclaux y Zulueta * Pedro Calvo-Sotelo e Ibáñez-Martín (born 20 December 1960), married to María Alvarez-Cascos y Gómez de Arteche * Víctor Calvo-Sotelo e Ibáñez-Martín (born 24 November 1961), unmarried and without issue * José María Calvo-Sotelo e Ibáñez-Martín (born 2 May 1964), unmarried and without issue * Andrés Calvo-Sotelo e Ibáñez-Martín (born 14 August 1965), twin with the below, unmarried and without issue * Pablo Calvo-Sotelo e Ibáñez-Martín (born 14 August 1965), twin with the above, married to Elvira García-Bellido y Capdevilla

General references

*Mclean, Renwick (2006). "Spain Takes a Proud Look Back." ''

International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France, for international English-speaking readers. It published under the name ''International Herald Tribune'' starting in 1967, but its ...

''. 24 February. *Preston, Paul (1990). ''The Triumph of Democracy in Spain''. London: Routledge. *Rogers, Eamonn and Valerie Rogers, eds. (1999). ''Encyclopedia of Contemporary Spanish Culture''. London: Routledge. *Walker, Jane (2006). "The Day Freedom Was Put in Peril." ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

''. 23 February.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calvo Sotelo, Leopoldo 1926 births 2008 deaths Spanish monarchists Deputy prime ministers of Spain Economy and finance ministers of Spain Grandees of Spain Marquesses of Spain Members of the Cortes Españolas Members of the constituent Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 1st Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 2nd Congress of Deputies (Spain) MEPs for Spain 1986–1987 Politicians from Madrid Polytechnic University of Madrid alumni Prime ministers of Spain Spanish Roman Catholics Union of the Democratic Centre (Spain) politicians