Miguel Boyer

Miguel Boyer (5 February 1939 – 29 September 2014) was a Spanish economist and politician, who served as minister of economy, treasury and commerce from 1982 to 1985.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Boyer and the second or maternal family name is Salvador.

Miguel Boyer
Miguel Boyer in 1983
Minister of Economy, Treasury and Commerce
In office
1 December 1982 – 6 July 1985
Prime MinisterFelipe González
Preceded byJaime García Añoveros
Succeeded byCarlos Solchaga
Personal details
Born
Miguel Boyer Salvador

5 February 1939
St. Jean de Luz, France
Died29 September 2014(2014-09-29) (aged 75)
Madrid, Spain
NationalitySpanish
Political partySocialist Party
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1964; div. 1985)​

​
(m. 1987)​
Children3
Alma materComplutense University of Madrid

Early life and education

Boyer was born in St. Jean de Luz, France, on 5 February 1939.[1] He was a graduate of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid where he studied economics.[2] He also received a degree in physics from the same university.[3]

Career

Boyer worked at different banks and institutions.[4] He served as the director of planning for the Unión Explosivos Río Tinto and later as a senior economist at the Bank of Spain.[5][6] He became the deputy director of the national industrial institute and then its director in 1974.[1] Next he worked at the state-owned hydrocarbons institute.[5] He was one of the Ibercorp shareholders.[7]

He joined the Socialist Party as part of its social democrat wing in 1960.[1][8] He helped Felipe González to form a faction in the party in the mid-1970s.[9] Boyer was a member of the Congress of Deputies, representing Jaén Province, and economic spokesperson of the party.[10] He and Carlos Solchaga were the architects of the party's economy policy.[4]

Boyer was appointed minister of economy, treasury and commerce to the first cabinet of Felipe González on 2 December 1982.[4][11] In 1985, he developed a tax act that enabled people to avoid tax on saving interest if they invested in insurance accounts.[12] During his term he was regarded as the most powerful member of the cabinet.[13][14] However, in a cabinet reshuffle in July 1985 Boyer was removed from office and was succeeded by Carlos Solchaga in the post.[13][15] It was speculated that Boyer was forced to resign due to his clash with Deputy Prime Minister Alfonso Guerra.[13][14] In addition, Boyer attempted to increase his power in the cabinet and demanded to assume the post of second vice prime minister, also leading to his forced resignation.[16]

Shortly after leaving office Boyer was named as the chief executive of the Banco Exterior de Espana and next of the investment company, Cartera Central.[17] In 1986, he was named member of the Abragam committee that oversaw the future structure of the CERN.[18] Until 1999 he served as a senior manager at the Spanish construction group FCC.[19] From July 1999 to January 2005, he was the chairman of CLH, a Spanish fuel distribution company.[19] In May 2010, Boyer was appointed board member to the Hispania Racing Team.[20] He also assumed the post of finance director and advisor to the team.[21] On 20 May 2010, he was also named as the independent member of the board of directors of Red Electrica Corporacion SA.[3] In addition, he served as the head of Urbis.[22]

Controversy

In February 1992, Boyer and Mariano Rubio, former governor of the Bank of Spain, were accused of fraud and share-price manipulation in relation to the Ibercorp.[7][23] Boyer was not sentenced, but Rubio was sentenced to jail.[23]

Views

In the 1970s, Boyer supported self-managing socialism.[24] However, later he became known for his orthodox, moderate and pragmatic approach to economy.[25] Despite being a member of the socialist government, he adopted neo-liberal views of economy when he was minister.[16] In addition, he and his successor Carlos Solchaga did not fit into the party's projected socialist mould.[26] They both implemented economic policies based the orthodox liberal ideas, and the social outcomes of these policies were largely neglected.[27] Their priority was to reduce inflation, using steps to control the money supply, which reinforced the high levels of interest and a strong currency.[26] Although Boyer's policy decreased the rate of inflation and government spending, Spain experienced the Europe's highest unemployment rate at about 20%.[28] Boyer also encouraged the economic integration of Spain into the European Union.[29]

Personal life and death

Boyer divorced his first wife, gynecologist Elena Arnedo, to wed a socialite, Isabel Preysler, in 1987.[30] Boyer's first wife, Elena Arnedo, was the cousin of Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo.[5] Isabel Preysler was the former spouse of the singer Julio Iglesias and Carlos Falcó, 5th Marquess of Griñón.[31] They had a daughter, Ana Boyer.[30] Boyer had also a son and a daughter with his first wife.[32][33]

Boyer died of a pulmonary embolism after being admitted to the Ruber International Hospital in Madrid on 29 September 2014.[34][35] He was 75.[35]

References
  1. Eamonn J. Rodgers; Valerie Rodgers, eds. (1999). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Spanish Culture. London; New York: Routledge. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-415-13187-2.
  2. "José Luis Sampedro: Economist who became an inspiration for Spain's anti-austerity movement". The Independent. 29 May 2013. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  3. "Red Electrica Corporacion SA (REE.MC)". Reuters. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  4. Omar G. Encarnación (2008). Spanish Politics: Democracy After Dictatorship. Cambridge: Polity. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-7456-3992-5.
  5. Richard Wigg (February 1983). "Socialism in Spain: A Pragmatic Start". The World Today. 39 (2): 63. JSTOR 40395475.
  6. "Spain's pragmatic socialism finds management types in key posts". The Christian Science Monitor. 14 October 1983. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  7. "Spain's Insiders in Insider Scandal". The New York Times. 23 May 1992. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  8. James M. Markham (1 December 1982). "Spain's new leader outlines cautious plans to parliament". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  9. Dennis Kavanagh, ed. (1998). "González Márquez, Felipe". A Dictionary of Political Biography. Who's Who in Twentieth-Century World Politics. Oxford: OUP. p. 191. ISBN 978-0192800350.
  10. "Euphoria turns to moderation as Spain's Socialists face reality of power". The Christian Science Monitor. 1 November 1982. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  11. Francisco Comín (2007). "Reaching a political consensus: The Moncloa pacts, joining the European Union and the rest of the journey". In Jorge Martínez-Vázquez; José Félix Sanz Sanz (eds.). Fiscal Reform in Spain: Accomplishments and Challenges. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-78254-271-1.
  12. John Gibbons (1999). Spanish Politics Today. Manchester; New York: Manchester University Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-7190-4946-0.
  13. "Spanish Premier Airs Out Cabinet, Replaces 6". Chicago Tribune. Madrid. 5 July 1985. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  14. Edward Schumacher (5 July 1985). "Spain's leader drops top aides in a big shuffle". The New York Times.
  15. John Gillingham (2003). European Integration, 1950-2003: Superstate Or New Market Economy?. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-521-01262-1.
  16. Otto Holman (2012). Integrating Southern Europe: EC Expansion and the Transnationalization of Spain. London; New York: Routledge. p. 1965. ISBN 978-1-134-80356-9.
  17. Paul Heywood (1 October 1995). "Sleaze in Spain". Parliamentary Affairs. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  18. Herwig F. Schopper (2009). Lep: The Lord of the Collider Rings at CERN 1980-2000: The Making, Operation and Legacy of the World's Largest Scientific Instrument. Dordrecht: Springer. p. 156. ISBN 978-3-540-89301-1.
  19. "Repsol YPF to replace Boyer at helm of CLH". El Pais. 13 January 2005. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  20. "Hispania forms new board of directors". GP Update. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  21. Alex Duff (27 May 2011). "Formula 1 Team Uses 175-Mile-Per-Hour Rolling Billboard to Find Sponsors". Bloomberg. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  22. "Miguel Boyer leaves the ICU and evolves "very satisfactory"". Nasdaq Report News. 11 April 2012. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  23. Hayley Rabanal (2011). Belén Gopegui: The Pursuit of Solidarity in Post-transition Spain. Woodbridge: Tamesis. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-85566-233-9.
  24. Juliá Santos (1990). "The ideological conversion of the leaders of the PSOE, 1976-1979". In Lannon Frances; Preston Paul (eds.). Élites and power in twentieth-century Spain. Essays in honour of Sir Raymond Carr. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198228806.
  25. John Williamson (1994). The Political Economy of Policy Reform. Washington, DC: Peterson Institute. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-88132-195-1.
  26. Jose Amodia (1994). "A victory against all the odds: The declining fortunes of the Spanish Pocialist Party". In Richard Gillespie (ed.). Mediterranean Politics. London: Pinter Publishers Ltd. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-8386-3609-1.
  27. Richard Gillespie (1992). "Factionalism in the Spanish Socialist Party" (PDF). Working Papers Barcelona (59). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 December 2021.
  28. "Spain's Finance Minister Quits Amid Major Cabinet Reshuffle". Los Angeles Times. 5 July 1985. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  29. Richard Gillespie; Fernando Rodrigo; Jonathan Story, eds. (1995). "Western alignment: Spain's security policy". Democratic Spain: Reshaping External Relations in a Changing World. London: Routledge. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-415-11325-0.
  30. Robby Tantingco (10 December 2012). "The Kapampangan girl Julio Iglesias loved before". Sun Star. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  31. "The Beautiful Women of the Philippines". Angelfire. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  32. "Ex-economy minister Miguel Boyer dies in hospital". Gnomes. 29 September 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  33. "Así ha quedado repartida la herencia de Miguel Boyer: su hija Laura ha renunciado a su parte". El Mundo (in Spanish). 27 October 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  34. "Mor als 75 anys l'exministre socialista Miguel Boyer per una embòlia pulmonar". 324 (in Spanish). 29 September 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  35. "Miguel Boyer Dies at 75 Years Old in Madrid". Getty Images. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
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