Adolfo Suárez Information & Adolfo Suárez Links at HealthHaven.com

Adolfo Suárez y González
Duke of Suárez, Grandee of Spain, Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece
	Adolfo Suárez y González ; Duke of Suárez, Grandee of Spain, Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece
	; Adolfo Suárez on a poster of the Spanish political party Democratic Centrist Union
73rd President of the Government of Spain; 3rd of the Democratic Transition (1975-1977); 1st of Democratic Spain (since 1977)
	In office; 3 July 1976 – 25 February 1981
Vice PM	Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado
Preceded by	Fernando de Santiago y Díaz
Succeeded by	Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo
	11th General Secretary of the Movement
	In office; 11 December 1975 – 3 July 1976
President	Carlos Arias Navarro; (1975-1976); Fernando de Santiago y Díaz; (1976)
Preceded by	José Solís Ruiz
Succeeded by	Ignacio García López
Born	25 September 1932 (age 77); Cebreros, Ávila, Spain
Nationality	Spain
Political party	UCD (1977-1981); CDS (1981-1991)
Spouse(s)	María Amparo Illana y Elórtegui († 2001)
Children	Adolfo, Maria Sonsoles, Marian
Alma mater	Salamanca University
Religion	Roman Catholicism

This is a Spanish name; the first family name is Suárez and the second is González.

Don Adolfo Suárez y González, 1st Duke of Suárez, Grandee of Spain, KOGF (Spanish: Don Adolfo Suárez y González, 1º Duque de Suárez, Grande de España, Caballero del Toisón de Oro) (born 25 September 1932) was Spain's first democratically elected prime minister after the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, and the key figure in the country's transition to democracy.

[edit] Parents

He is a son of Hipólito Suárez y … and Herminia González y … (Ávila, 1910 - 18 July 2006), and the brother of Doña María del Carmen Suárez y González, who is married to Aurelio Delgado y …^[1]

[edit] Life

Suárez studied Law at Salamanca University, and held several government posts during the late Francoist regime.

He became the Minister Secretary General of the National Movement (Movimiento Nacional), a body that served as sole political party, for 18 years, a period that extended beyond the death of Franco in November 1975. For this reason, centrists and leftists opposed the appointment of Suárez as the 138th Prime Minister of Spain by the Spanish King Juan Carlos on 4 July 1976. Suárez, as a nationalist, was chosen by the monarch to lead the country towards a democratic, parliamentary monarchy without annoying the powerful conservative factions (especially the military) in the country. Surprising many observers and political opponents, Suárez introduced Political Reform in 1976 as a first, decisive step in the Transition (La Transición) to democracy.

In 1977, Suárez led the Democratic Centrist Union (Unión de Centro Democrático, UCD) to victory in Spain's first free elections in 41 years, and became the first democratically-elected prime minister of the post-Franco regime.

Suárez's centrist government instituted democratic reforms, and his coalition won the 1979 elections under the new constitution. Less successful as a day-to-day organiser than as a crisis manager, he resigned as Prime Minister on 25 January 1981.^[2] In 1982, Suárez founded the Democratic and Social Centrist (Centro Democrático y Social, CDS) party, which never achieved the success of UCD. He retired from active politics in 1991, for personal reasons.

Suárez was awarded the Príncipe de Asturias a la Concordia award in September 1996, in recognition of his important personal contribution to Spanish democracy. The King of Spain made him Duke of Suárez in 1981. On 8 June 2007, during the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the first democratic elections, King Juan Carlos I appointed Suárez the 1,193rd Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece for his important role during the Spanish transition to democracy.^[3]

[edit] Family

Suarez's wife, María del Amparo Illana y Elórtegui, and elder daughter, María del Amparo ("Marian") Suárez y Illana, suffered and died from cancer (on 17 May 2001 and 7 March 2004, respectively). The younger María del Amparo ("Marian") was born in 1962; in 1998, she married Fernando Romero y …, to whom she gave two children, Alejandra Romero y Suárez (b. 1990) and Fernando Romero y Suárez (b. 1993).

Another daughter, María Sonsoles Suárez y Illana (born in Madrid in 1967), became a TV news anchor for Antena 3 and married José María Martínez-Bordiú y Bassó de Roviralta, born in Madrid on 22 November 1962 and a nephew of Cristóbal Martínez-Bordiú, the son-in-law of Francisco Franco; the couple is without issue.

Suárez's eldest son, Adolfo Suárez Illana was a politician and now practises law and is heavily involved with the world of bullfighting. Suárez had two more children, his daughter Laura and his son Javier, both unmarried and without issue.

[edit] Illness

On 31 May 2005, Suárez's son, Adolfo Suárez Illana, announced on Spanish television that his father was suffering from Alzheimer's disease (or a similar illness), which meant that he could no longer remember his period as Prime Minister of Spain. The announcement followed speculation about Suárez's health in the Spanish media.

[edit] Footnotes

^ http://www.geneall.net/H/per_page.php?id=467647
^ Preston, Paul, "Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy", page 457. Harper Perennial, 2005. ISBN 0006386938
^ BOE 07-06-09, Spanish official journal, accessed 9 June 2007.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Tribute to Adolfo Suárez: Guestbook

Political offices
Preceded by *Fernando de Santiago y Díaz (acting)*	President of the Government of Spain 1976–1981	Succeeded by Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo
Spanish nobility
Preceded by New Creation	Duke of Suárez 1981–present	Succeeded by Incumbent

[0] ttp://www.geneall.net/H/per_page.php?id=467647

[1] Preston, Paul, "Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy", page 457. Harper Perennial, 2005. ISBN 0006386938

[2] BOE 07-06-09, Spanish official journal, accessed 9 June 2007.

[1]

[2]

[3]

Contents