Diego Martínez Barrio

Diego Martínez Barrio (born November 25, 1883 in Seville , † January 1, 1962 in Paris ) was a Spanish politician and Prime Minister of Spain ( Presidente del Gobierno ) , incumbent President of the Second Republic and President of the Republic of Exile.

Life

Origin and professional career

Martínez Barrio was the son of a bricklayer and a market woman. After his mother's death in 1894, he took up a job as a printer in order to finance the evening school. Soon after, he joined the Seville Republican Youth ( Juventud Republicana de Sevilla ). During his military service in 1907 he spent two months in the military prison for an article, until the case was finally dismissed.

In 1908 he joined the followers than Freemasonry of the Masonic Lodge of Seville ( La Fe de Sevilla in). At the same time he became a member of the Radical Republican Party ( Partido Republicano Radical ) founded by Alejandro Lerroux in 1908 . He then worked as a journalist and editor of a newspaper for the Masonic Lodge. Later he was the founder and editor of the daily newspaper "El Pueblo" (The People) and was instrumental in promoting the ideas of the Radical Republican Party in Seville and Western Andalusia .

Early political career and Primo de Rivera's dictatorship

His real political career began in 1910 with his election as a member of the City Council ( Concejal del Ayuntamiento ) of Seville. After the First World War , he was re-elected as a city councilor in the local elections of 1920. In the election for the Congress of Deputies ( Congreso de los Diputados ) he was elected a member of the parliament, but the Electoral Council ( Junta de Censo ) and the Supreme Court ( Tribunal Supremo ) canceled his election results and instead appointed Juan Ignacio Luca de Tena as the election winner, who in turn renounced the acceptance of the mandate. Shortly thereafter, he became chairman of the Radical Republican Party of Seville Province . As such, he was one of the leaders of the opposition in western Andalusia during the military dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, which lasted from September 1923 to January 1930 .

On August 7, 1930, he participated as a member of the Revolutionary Committee ( Comite Revolucionario ) in the negotiations for the signature of the famous Pact of San Sebastián , where the republican parties under Niceto Alcalá Zamora and Miguel Maura Gamazo, a son of Antonio Maura Montaner united to the abdication of King Alfonso XIII. to reach.

Second Spanish Republic

Minister and MP

At the proclamation of the Second Republic after the flight of King Alfonso XIII. on April 14, 1931 because of the result of the Republican parties in the local elections of April 12, 1931, which was widely interpreted as a victory, he was, like many opposition politicians, in exile in France because of his political activities .

Just one day after the proclamation of the republic, he was appointed Minister of Communications ( Ministro de Comunicaciones ) by Prime Minister Niceto Alcalá Zamora on April 15, 1931 . His return by rail from exile to Spain with Indalecio Prieto and other exi politicians was a triumphal procession. At every train station, the politicians were greeted enthusiastically by crowds. At the station of Valladolid they were from the Captain General ( Capitan General ) of the province of Valladolid with military honors and the " Himno de Riego " received, the new national anthem of the Second Republic. Immediately after arriving in Madrid, the politicians were sworn in by President Alcalá Zamora in their ministerial offices.

In the first parliamentary elections during the Second Republic, he was elected Member of Parliament on June 28, 1931, where he represented the interests of the constituencies of Seville and finally of Madrid for three terms until January 30, 1938 .

He also retained the post of communications minister in the subsequent cabinet of Manuel Azaña from October 14, 1931 to December 16, 1931. Azaña's successor as Prime Minister, his old party friend Alejandro Lerroux García , appointed him Minister of the Interior on September 12, 1933 ( Ministro de Gobernación ) in his first cabinet.

Prime Minister from October to November 1933

Less than a month later, on October 8, 1933, he succeeded Lerroux himself for the first time as Prime Minister of Spain ( Presidente del Gobierno ) . As such, he formed a government that remained in office until December 16, 1933 and was then replaced by Lerroux. During this time he was during the absences of the incumbent in October and November 1933 both acting Minister of War ( Ministro de Guerra ) and in November 1933 for a week acting Minister of the Navy ( Ministro de Marina ). His main task as Prime Minister was to organize the parliamentary elections of November 19, 1933. As a politician recognized by all parties, he governed moderately and non-partisan and also gave permission for the founding meeting of the fascist Falange on October 29, 1933 in the Teatro de la Comedia in Madrid. The parliamentary elections on November 19, 1933 went without incident and Martínez Barrio also suspended the law of emergency ( Ley de Defensa de la Republica ) during the election in order to avoid any appearance of election manipulation or irregularities.

In the second cabinet of his successor, Lerroux, he was Deputy Prime Minister ( Vicepresidente del Consejo de Ministros ) from December 16, 1933 to March 3, 1934, and Minister of War until January 23, 1934. As part of a cabinet reshuffle, he took over the office of Interior Minister from January 23 to March 3, 1934. After differences of opinion with Lerroux, he left the Radical Republican Party and resigned as minister. Instead, he founded his own party, the Radical Democratic Party, which was later renamed Unión Republicana .

After the incorporation of the Unión Republicana into the Popular Front ( Frente Popular ), he was elected on the open list in the elections on February 16, 1936 as a member of the Congress of Deputies, where he represented one of the Madrid constituencies. With 224,337 votes, he received the second-best result and only 203 votes less than the then President of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), Julián Besteiro .

President of Parliament, incumbent President of the Republic and renewed Prime Ministerial

On March 16, 1936 he was first acting President and then from April 3, 1936 to March 31, 1939 President of the Congress of Deputies ( Presidente de la Cámara ). As such, he was after the impeachment of Alcalá Zamora after the election victory of the Frente Popular incumbent President of the Second Republic from April 7, 1936 until the election of Manuel Azaña as President on May 11, 1936. As President of Parliament, he was also one of the closest advisers of Azaña.

On July 19, 1936, he was again Prime Minister for three hours as the successor to Santiago Casares Quiroga , in order to limit the military revolt that Francisco Franco had started on July 17 . On the same day, however, he was succeeded by José Giral Pereira as Prime Minister, because despite talks with General Emilio Mola about the formation of a government of reconciliation, he was unable to prevent the civil war that had started by Franco's revolt .

After the beginning of Franco's rule on January 30, 1938, however, parliament was inactive and he was de facto relieved of his role as President of Parliament.

End of the Second Republic and exile

After Franco came to power and the Second Republic finally ended on April 1, 1939, he went back into exile in France , where he was elected President of the government-in-exile for a short time. Soon afterwards he went into exile in Mexico , where he was re-elected President of the government in exile in 1945. He held this office in Paris until his death. Giral Pereira was Prime Minister of the government-in-exile for the first two years.

In 2000 his remains were transferred from Paris to his hometown of Seville. In 2008, the Seville City Council honored him with the publication of his collected speeches and writings between 1901 and 1959 under the title "Palabra de republicano" (Words of a Republican).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ List of Members of Parliament from 1810 to 1977
2. ↑ "You Snake!" , Article in TIME magazine on October 16, 1933
3. ^ Presidents of Congress and Senate
4. ^ "Father Out" , article in TIME magazine of April 20, 1936
5. ^ "On The Road To Madrid" , article in TIME magazine from August 20, 1945
6. ^ "Fugitives from Franco" , article in TIME magazine of September 10, 1945

Web links

• Biography on the homepage of the Spanish Prime Ministers ( Memento of October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish)
• Biography (English)
• Governments during the Second Republic 1931-1939
• Martinez Barrio in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

predecessor	Office	successor
Alejandro Lerroux	Prime Minister of Spain 1933	Alejandro Lerroux
Santiago Casares Quiroga	Prime Minister of Spain 1936	José Giral Pereira
Niceto Alcalá Zamora	Acting President of Spain April – May 1936	Manuel Azaña ( Spanish Civil War )