José Antonio Alonso Suarez
José Antonio Alonso Suárez (born March 28, 1960 in León ; † February 2, 2017 ) was a Spanish politician . In the 2008–2012 legislative period he was group spokesman for the socialist PSOE in the Spanish parliament ; previously he was Minister of the Interior and Defense.
Life
José Antonio Alonso was a childhood friend of the Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero , with whom he went to school and university. He studied law at the University of León and was appointed judge in 1985 when he was only 25. In 1989 Alonso became a criminal judge in Madrid and a little later a judge of the Audiencia Nacional , the highest Spanish criminal court. From 1994 to 1998 he was spokesman for the left-wing, second largest Spanish judges' association Jueces para la Democracia ("Judges for Democracy").
In the Spanish parliamentary elections in 2004 , Alonso ran for a seat in the Spanish House of Representatives on the PSOE's list at the request of then opposition leader Zapatero. However, Alonso did not join the party, as judges in Spain are formally obliged to be politically neutral.
After the Socialists' election victory, Alonso became Minister of the Interior in the first Zapatero cabinet . After the resignation of Defense Minister José Bono in April 2006, Alonso took over his portfolio; Instead, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba became the new interior minister .
As Defense Minister after the 2006 Lebanon War , Alonso was responsible for sending Spanish troops to this country, which after Italy and France form one of the largest contingents of the UNIFIL mission . In addition, Alonso increased the Spanish contingent in NATO's ISAF mission in Afghanistan .
After the Spanish parliamentary elections in 2008 , which confirmed the Zapatero government, Alonso was appointed leader of the PSOE parliamentary group in the Spanish Chamber of Deputies. In this position he replaced Diego López Garrido , who was then Secretary of State for European Affairs in the Foreign Ministry.
Alonso died of lung cancer in 2017 . He was married and had a son.
Web links
- Biographical data ( memento of February 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) on www.mde.es, the website of the Spanish Ministry of Defense, in the Internet Archive on archive.org, as of February 7, 2008 (Spanish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Muere José Antonio Alonso, exministro de Interior y Defensa, a los 56 años . El País , February 2, 2017, accessed February 3, 2017 (Spanish).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Alonso Suárez, José Antonio |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 28, 1960 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Leon |
| DATE OF DEATH | 2nd February 2017 |