President of the Republic (Spain)

President of the Republic (Spanish: Presidente de la República) was the title of the head of state during the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939). The office was based on the model of the Weimar Republic, then still in power in Germany, and a compromise between the French and American presidential systems.[1]

"President of Spain" redirects here. Not to be confused with Prime Minister of Spain.
President of the Republic
Presidente de la República
Republican coat of arms
Last office holder
Manuel Azaña
10 May 1936 – 3 March 1939
StyleSu Excelencia
PrecursorKing of Spain
Formation14 April 1931
First holderNiceto Alcalá-Zamora
Final holderManuel Azaña
Abolished3 March 1939
Superseded byFrancoist dictatorship
DeputyPresident of the Cortes republicanas

The "Republican Revolutionary Committee" set up by the Pact of San Sebastián (1930),[2] considered the "central event in the opposition to the monarchy of Alfonso XIII",[3] and headed by Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, eventually became the first provisional government of the Second Republic, with Alcalá-Zamora named President of the Republic on 11 December 1931.

Note that Spain is one of the democracies (see President of the Government for the full list of countries) where the term 'president' must be used with care, as it does not solely refer to the head of state but to several distinct offices: President of the Republic for some historical heads of state; President of the Government for the head of the executive; President of the Senate for the speaker of the upper parliamentary chamber, etcetera. This has led to some confusion in countries where the term president refers solely to the head of state, such as the United States: several incidents involved high-profile American politicians calling the Spanish head of government "President," including George W. Bush in 2001,[4] Jeb Bush in 2003,[5] and most recently, Donald Trump in September 2017.[6] With Spain a constitutional monarchy since 1975, the current monarch is head of state.

First Spanish Republic (1873–74)
Main article: First Spanish Republic

Following the abdication of Amadeo I on 10 February 1873, the short-lived First Republic (1873–74) had four heads of state (officially, Presidents of the Executive Power): Estanislao Figueras, Pi i Margall, Nicolás Salmerón, and Emilio Castelar.[7]

Presidents of the Executive Power of the First Republic
Portrait Name Term start Term end Political Party
Estanislao Figueras12 February 187311 June 1873Democratic Federal Republican Party
Francesc Pi i Margall11 June 187318 July 1873Democratic Federal Republican Party
Nicolás Salmerón18 July 18737 September 1873Progressive Party
Emilio Castelar7 September 18733 January 1874Republican Possibilist Party

On the eve of the pronunciamiento. (coup d'état) of 3 January 1874, General Pavia sent for Francisco Serrano y Domínguez take to the leadership. Serrano took the title of president of the executive and he continued at the end of December 1874 when the Bourbons were restored by another pronunciamiento.

Portrait Name Term start Term end
Francisco Serrano y Domínguez3 January 187430 December 1874

Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939)

Following the abdication of Alfonso XIII on 14 April 1931, there was no official head of state, meaning that the Prime Minister was, in effect, the highest office in the land. Niceto Alcalá-Zamora assumed the new role of President of the Republic, the effective head of state, after the approval of the new Constitution in December 1931. Manuel Azaña remained as Prime Minister, head of the government, until 12 September 1933.

Presidents (Prime Ministers) of the Provisional Government of the Republic
Name Term start Term end Political Party
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora14 April 193114 October 1931Liberal Republican Right
Manuel Azaña14 October 193111 December 1931Republican Action

Presidents of the Republic
Name Term start Term end Political Party
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora11 December 19317 April 1936Liberal Republican Right
Diego Martínez Barrio (interim)7 April 193611 May 1936Republican Union (Popular Front)
Manuel Azaña11 May 19363 March 1939Republican Left (Popular Front)

With Franco's victory imminent, a National Council of Defense was established to negotiate a peace settlement with the Nationalists. By this point, Franco effectively had military control of the whole country.

Presidents of the National Council of Defense (Republican Zone)
Name Term start Term end Political Party
Segismundo Casado
(interim)		4 March 193913 March 1939Military
José Miaja13 March 193927 March 1939Military

Fall of the Republic

On 27 February 1939, after both France and the United Kingdom had recognised Franco's military victory, President Manuel Azaña, exiled in France, resigned. The following week, the so-called Casado's Coup against Prime Minister Negrín's government[8] led to the creation of the National Defence Council which attempted, unsuccessfully to negotiate terms, with Franco breaking off talks motu proprio.[9] Following Franco's final offensive at the end of March 1939, the Republic fell.

Presidents of the Spanish Republic in exile (1939–1977)
Portrait Name Term start Term end Political Party
Diego Martínez Barrio
(Official interim successor of Azaña for being president of the Congress
and an important figure for most of the non-communist anti-Franco forces
but for his enmity with Juan Negrín he did not take office until 1945).		4 March 193917 August 1945Republican Union (Popular Front)
Juan Negrín
(Prime Minister in the exile until the proclamation as president of Diego
Martínez Barrio, who dismissed him).		31 March 1939[10][11]17 August 1945Republican Union (Popular Front)
Diego Martínez Barrio17 August 19451 January 1962Republican Union (Popular Front)
Luis Jiménez de Asúa11 February 196216 November 1970PSOE (Popular Front)
José Maldonado GonzálezNovember 19701 July 1977Republican Left (Popular Front)

Timeline
José Maldonado GonzálezLuis Jiménez de AsúaDiego Martínez BarrioManuel AzañaDiego Martínez BarrioNiceto Alcalá-ZamoraManuel AzañaNiceto Alcalá-ZamoraFrancisco SerranoEmilio CastelarNicolás SalmerónFrancisco Pi i MargallEstanislao Figueras

See also

References
  1. Payne, Stanley G. (1993) Spain's First Democracy: The Second Republic, 1931–1936, pp. 62–3. Univ of Wisconsin Press. Google Books. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  2. Conversi, Daniele (2000) The Basques, the Catalans, and Spain: Alternative Routes to Nationalist Mobilisation, p. 38. University of Nevada Press. Google Books. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  3. Preston, Paul (2002) Revolution and War in Spain, 1931–1939, p. 192. Routledge. Google Books. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  4. "Joint Press Conference with President George W. Bush and President Jose Maria Aznar" The White House. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  5. "Jeb Bush slips on Spanish history" CNN. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  6. "Donald Trump's tweet on Mariano Rajoy's visit to the United States". Twitter. 26 September 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
  7. The official name of " Executive Power " between 1868 and 1874, designates a transitory and undefined authority without a constitutional configuration.
  8. "War in Spain: Casado's Coup" TIME. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  9. (in Spanish) "Segismunco [sic] Casado: el final de una guerra" ABC. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  10. Herrerín López, Ángel (2007), El dinero del exilio: Indalecio Prieto y las pugnas de posguerra (1939-1947), Siglo XXI de España Editores, pág.3
  11. Romero Samper, Milagrosa (2005), La oposición durante el franquismo, Encuentro, pág.91
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