José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones

José Maria Gil-Robles y Quiñones around 1931

José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones (born November 27, 1898 in Salamanca , † September 13, 1980 in Madrid ) was a Spanish lawyer and politician.

Working life

Gil-Robles graduated from Salamanca University with a law degree at the age of 21 and worked as a lawyer in the law firm of his father, Enrique Gil-Robles. Since his youth, Gil-Robles was active in political organizations and Catholic social movements. After completing his doctorate at the Central University of Madrid , he became a professor of political law at the University of San Cristóbal de La Laguna in the Canarian province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1932 , but hardly took up this position. On his return to Madrid he became a member of the editorial board of the Catholic daily El Debate , whose editor was Ángel Herrera Oria . As secretary of the National Catholic Agricultural Federation, he joined the Social People's Party ( Partido Social Popular ) in 1922 , whose leader was Ángel Ossorio y Gallardo .

Political activity

In 1923, after the beginning of the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera , he worked with José Calvo Sotelo , the general director of the local administration, on the municipal statute. In the first parliamentary elections two months after the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic , he was elected a member of the Bloque Agrario agricultural bloc in June 1931 . In the constituent parliament to which he belonged, he stood out as an opponent of the new government's religious policy. In the same year began his active participation in the Acción Nacional , which was renamed shortly before by Herrera Oria and in 1932 at the request of the government in Acción Popular , when Gil-Robles was already one of its most important leaders. He took the view of accidentalism , according to which it is not the question of the form of the state (monarchy or republic) that is decisive, but the representation of the interests of the church. This attitude was contrary to other positions of right-wing politicians who were fundamentally against the republic.

At the end of February and beginning of March 1933 he was involved in the founding of the Spanish Alliance of Autonomous Right - the Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (CEDA) - and incorporated the Acción Popular into it. The CEDA emerged as the strongest force in the parliamentary elections of November 1933 with Gil-Robles at its head, but with a small relative majority (115 of 450 seats), which is why it was unable to govern alone. From then on, Gil-Robles supported the new cabinet under Alejandro Lerroux and also the following governments under the leadership of other politicians of the Partido Republicano Radical .

In October 1934, the appointment of three members of the CEDA as government ministers sparked the Asturian miners' strike , led jointly by anarchists, socialists and communists, and the uprising was put down by the Spanish Navy, the military and the Spanish Foreign Legion. On May 6, 1935 he was appointed Minister of War by Lerroux and promoted a number of high-ranking officers who played a decisive role in the Spanish Civil War that broke out a little later . B. General Francisco Franco . He also retained the post in the following cabinet, which was led by the independent Joaquín Chapaprieta Torregrosa from September 1935 . His political position on economic issues, which was incompatible with that of the head of government, led to the head of government's resignation and thus to the end of his own ministerial career.

After the victory of the Popular Front in the parliamentary elections of February 1936, he took over the leadership of the parliamentary opposition. He was more and more overshadowed by the more radical demands of José Calvo Sotelo , who was murdered on the night of July 12th to 13th of the same year. Gil-Robles only narrowly escaped his assassination by leaving for northern Spain, and later left the country for France . After he was expelled from the country by the Léon Blum government , he went to Portugal. When the civil war began, he advised his followers to support Francisco Franco's war party and gave his party's money to General Mola .

exile

When the war ended on April 1, 1939, he represented the interests of the royal family and became a member of the private council of the Count of Barcelona ( Juan de Borbón , father of the future King Juan Carlos I ). In 1948 he tried to reach an agreement with the leader of the socialists Indalecio Prieto for the purpose of restoring the monarchy.

Opposition to Franco

In 1953 he returned to Spain, where he supported various opponents of the Franco dictatorship. In 1962 he was expelled from Spain because of his participation in a secret meeting of Franco opponents in Munich, whereupon he had to leave the advisory group of the Count of Barcelona. He then began writing memoirs. In the first volume, entitled No Peace Was Possible (1968), he tried to explain the reasons for the civil war and to justify his role in the events that preceded the war.

New role in democracy

After holding a chair at the University of Oviedo since 1968 , he tried to work in the Christian Democratic Party from the death of General Franco in 1975, the ascension of the throne by Juan Carlos I and the beginning of the democratization period. He was helped by one of his sons, José María Gil-Robles y Gil-Delgado . His party, which joined the Christian Democratic Federation (Federación de Democracia Cristiana) together with that of Joaquín Ruiz-Giménez , failed in the 1977 election and did not receive a single seat. Thereupon he withdrew completely from political life. In 1976 another of his autobiographical works with a political cut was published with the title The monarchy I fought for (La monarquía por la que luché) .

His son José María Gil-Robles later joined the conservative People's Party ( Partido Popular ) and became President of the European Parliament . Another of his sons, Álvaro Gil-Robles , became ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo).

Web links

• Literature by and about José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones in the catalog of the German National Library
• Jose Maria Gil Robles in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)