Federico Trillo-Figueroa Martínez-Conde (born 23 May 1952 in

Cartagena, Spain Cartagena () is a Spanish city and a major naval station on the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Iberia. As of January 2018, it has a population of 218,943 inhabitants, being the region's second-largest municipality and the country's sixth-l ...

) is a former Spanish Politician of the People's Party, who has served as

President of the Congress of Deputies The president of the Congress of Deputies ( es, Presidente del Congreso de los Diputados) is the speaker of the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Cortes Generales (the Spanish parliament). The president is elected among the members o ...

Minister of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in so ...

and Ambassador of Spain to the United Kingdom. His father, also named Federico Trillo, was a politician during the reign of

caudillo A ''caudillo'' ( , ; osp, cabdillo, from Latin , diminutive of ''caput'' "head") is a type of personalist leader wielding military and political power. There is no precise definition of ''caudillo'', which is often used interchangeably with " ...

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 19 ...

. He has a bachelor's degree in law from the

University of Salamanca The University of Salamanca ( es, Universidad de Salamanca) is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the city of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It was founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX. It is ...

and a PhD in Law from the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university lo ...

. He is married with five children. Trillo entered into the Navy's Legal Corps as first of his class in 1974 where he was posted in the naval prosecutor's office of the Maritime Zone of the Mediterranean, later he was posted in the Directorship of Military Naval Construction. In 1979, he passed the competitive examination for Counsel of the

Council of State A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...

. He retired from the navy as a Judge-Advocate Mayor in 1989 in order to enter politics. In 1983 he entered the legal staff of the ''Alianza Popular'' (''People's Alliance''), then headed by

Manuel Fraga Iribarne Manuel Fraga Iribarne (; 23 November 1922 – 15 January 2012) was a Spanish professor and politician in Francoist Spain, who was also the founder of the People's Party. Fraga was Minister of Information and Tourism between 1962 and 1969, Amba ...

, where he actively participated in the restructuring of the party, refashioning it as the People's Party. He has been a member of the national executive since 1986. Trillo has been elected deputy for the province of

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in th ...

since 1989. From 1989 and 1996, he was vice-president of the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members ele ...

. On 27 March 1996 he was elected president of the Congress of Deputies, a position he maintained until the end of the sixth legislature in 2000. On 27 April 2000 Prime Minister

José María Aznar José María Alfredo Aznar López (; born 25 February 1953) is a Spanish politician who was the prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party (PP), the dominant centre-right political party in Spain. A member of the F ...

named him Minister of Defense for Aznar's second government. In July 2002, he ordered an attack on Perejil Island, which had been occupied for days by Moroccan soldiers. The Yakovlev 42 crash in Turkey on 26 May 2003, in which 62 Spanish soldiers died while returning from

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

marked the end of his tenure as the Minister of Defense. Three of his subordinates were sent to prison for falsifying the identification of 30 of the bodies. A judge found no grounds to implicate Trillo, and Trillo repeatedly refused to accept political or criminal responsibility. Trillo is the author of many books on law and judicial and political thought. His most recognized works are: ''El poder político en los dramas de Shakespeare'' (Political Power in Shakespeare's Dramas) and ''Pregones y Semblanzas''. He collaborated in the founding of the Association for Studies for Social Progress. He is a member of the Spanish Commission of Military History, and a member of

Opus Dei Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei ( la, Praelatura Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei), is an institution of the Catholic Church whose members seek personal Christian holiness and strive to imbue their work a ...

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Trillo, Federico Ambassadors of Spain to the United Kingdom Defence ministers of Spain Spanish jurists 1952 births Living people University of Salamanca alumni Complutense University of Madrid alumni Members of the 4th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 5th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 6th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 7th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 8th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 9th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Presidents of the Congress of Deputies (Spain) Politicians from Cartagena, Spain People's Party (Spain) politicians Opus Dei members