Alejandro Lerroux
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008) |
Alejandro Lerroux y García (La Rambla, Córdoba, 4 March 1864/1866 - Madrid, 25 June 1949) was a Spanish politician who was the leader of the Radical Republican Party during the Second Spanish Republic.[1]
He agitated as a young man in the ranks of the radical republicans, as a follower of Ruiz Zorrilla. He practised a demagogic and aggressive journalistic style in the diverse publications that he directed (El País, El Progreso, El Intransigente and El Radical).
His populist and anticlerical speeches, as well as his intervention in diverse campaigns against the governments of the Restoration, made him very popular among workers in Barcelona, who later constituted the base of a loyal electorate. He was chosen as a deputy for the first time in 1901, and again in 1903 and 1905, as a member of the Republican Union party that he had helped to form with Nicolás Salmerón. The defection of Salmerón to the Catalan Solidarity coalition in 1906 led Lerroux to form the Radical Republican Party (1908) and headed the struggle against increasing Catalan nationalism. He had to go into exile on several occasions, first to escape condemnation dictated by one of his articles (1907) and later fleeing from governmental repression in response to the Tragic Week in Barcelona (1909).
After returning to Spain, he agreed to join the Socialist-Republican Conjunction, and he was elected as a deputy again in 1910. Afterwards he was involved in a series of scandals that moved him away from his Barcelona electorate, between corruption accusations (until the point of which there was a change of district, appearing for Córdoba in 1914). Under the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923-30), his party was debilitated by the split with the Radical-Socialists lead by Marcelino Domingo (1929). However, he continued to be active in politics, participating in the revolutionary committee known as the Pact of San Sebastian that prepared the overthrow of King Alfonso XIII and the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931.
Under the republican regime he regained a leading political role, being appointed prime minister three times between and occupying the distinguished ministerial portfolios.
He was part of the coalition of leftists that supported the reforms of Manuel Azaña's government during the first biennium (1931-1933), during which time he served as minister of State (1931) and as Minister of Foreign Affairs between 14 April 1931 and 16 December 1931. From 12 September to 9 October 1933 he was Prime Minister.
After the victory of the CEDA in the elections of autumn 1933, he again became prime minister, mainly because the President did not wish to appoint CEDA leader José María Gil-Robles. As such he served from 16 December 1933 to 28 April 1934 and again from 4 October 1934 to 25 September 1935. He also served as minister of war (1934), state (1935) and Foreign Affairs (1935).
After distinguishing himself in the repression of the attempted workers revolution of 1934, he was discredited by the Straperlo affaire (a case of corruption bound to casino authorization), that completely broke his alliance with the right and even weakened his position within the party.
In the elections of 1936 he was not even elected as a deputy, and when that same year the Spanish Civil War broke out, he preferred to place himself out of danger in Portugal. He returned to Spain in 1947.[2]
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ Cowans, Jon (2003). Modern Spain: a documentary history. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 103. ISBN 081223717x. http://books.google.com/books?id=IcmrVmq0_-8C&pg=PA103&dq=%22Alejandro+Lerroux%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=rHppSLqsPKHQjgGQnPmPBg&sig=ACfU3U3eJ0iYfVnRAMEpQCe6IsAYp26bYQ#PPA103,M1.
- ^ Langdon-Davies, John (1936). Behind the Spanish Barricades: Reports from the Spanish Civil War. Reportage Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=ExpwlomPe6cC&pg=PA5&dq=%22Alejandro+Lerroux%22+spain+1947&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=y3xpSNmrEorGjgHFo7GIBg&sig=ACfU3U0oX7sYOaPCITWXD-MimUy0_-kRJg.
| Preceded by Manuel Azaña Díaz |
Prime Minister of Spain 1933 and 1934-1935 |
Succeeded by Diego Martínez Barrio |
