Francisco José Vázquez Vázquez (born 9 April 1946) is a Spanish politician who represented the Socialists' Party of Galicia. He was mayor of his hometown of

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

from 1983 to 2006, and also served in the

Parliament of Galicia The Parliament of Galicia () is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. It is formed by 75 deputies (). Deputies are elected every four years in ordinary period, or extraordinarily upon dissolu ...

and both chambers of the

Cortes Generales The (; ) are the Bicameralism, bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house) and the Senate of Spain, Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, ...

. From 2006 to 2011, he was Spain's ambassador to the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

. Vázquez, who holds socially conservative beliefs, later left 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 ...

due to differences in ideology.

Career

Vázquez opposed the 1994 Galician Supreme Court decision that made place names in the

Galician language Galician ( , ), also known as Galego (), is a Iberian Romance languages, Western Ibero-Romance language. Around 2.4 million people have at least some degree of competence in the language, mainly in Galicia (Spain), Galicia, an Autonomo ...

official, opining that he should be allowed to use the Spanish-language name ''La Coruña'' when speaking Spanish, as the region is bilingual. In 2008 he was cleared of wrongdoing in court after being sued for this, with the court sharing his reasoning. In February 2006, Vázquez was chosen by prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to be Spain's ambassador to the

. According to '' El País'', Vázquez – a practicing Catholic who opposes abortion and gay marriage – was chosen to improve Spain's then fracturous relations with the Vatican. He resigned five years later. Vázquez left the

due to his opposition to the

Law of Historical Memory Law 52/2007, commonly known as Historical Memory Law (Sp: ''Ley de Memoria Histórica''), recognises and broadens "the rights and establishes measures in favour of those who suffered persecution or violence during the Spanish Civil War, civil w ...

, which he considers to have broken the reconciliation of the

Spanish transition to democracy The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as (; ) or (), is a period of History of Spain, modern Spanish history encompassing the regime change that moved from the Francoist dictatorship to the consolidation of a parliamentary system ...

: "we were all victims and killers at the same time. To whoever says Paracuellos (site of a Republican massacre) to you, you can respond with Badajoz (site of a Nationalist massacre), and vice versa"; he also said the party "stops being social-democratic and sinks when it flies unrelated flags like ecology and gender ideology". From November 2018, he campaigned with Albert Rivera, leader of

Citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...

Personal life

Vázquez's love of comic books has been documented. He was one of two creators of the ''Viñetas desde el Atlántico'' ("Comics from the Atlantic") festival in his hometown, and owns one of the biggest private collections in Spain.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vazquez Vazquez, Francisco 1946 births Living people People from A Coruña Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians Mayors of A Coruña Ambassadors of Spain to the Holy See Spanish Roman Catholics Spanish collectors