Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo

**Leopoldo Ramón Pedro Calvo-Sotelo y Bustelo, 1st Marquess of Ría de Ribadeo** (April 14, 1926 – November 1, 1989), usually known as **Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo**, was President of Spain between 1988 and 1989 until his death in November of 1989.

## History

Calvo-Sotelo was born into a prominent political family in Madrid on 14 April 1926 with his father, Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo, and his mother, Mercedes Bustelo Márquez. The assassination of his uncle, José Calvo Sotelo, who had been finance minister under Miguel Primo de Rivera, was a key event leading up to the Spanish Civil War. Calvo-Sotelo graduated as a civil engineer from the School of Civil Engineers of Madrid now part of the Technical University of Madrid, working in the area of applications of chemistry to the industry.

He was the president of RENFE (the Spanish national railroad network) between 1967 and 1968. Calvo-Sotelo was elected solicitor (Deputy) of Franco's Cortes, representing industrialists in the Union of Chemical Industries, in 1971. A monarchist, Sotelo was one of the founders of an association of politicians, mostly of Rightists and Center Rightists, which disguised as the Fedisa publishing firm helped Spain's peaceful transition into democracy.

Calvo-Sotelo was designated Minister of Commerce by Carlos Arias Navarro to be in the first government of the Monarchy (December 1975 – July 1976). He advocated a true transition to democracy instead of mere superficial changes that politicians like Navarro planned. Calvo-Sotelo was kept in the cabinet of Adolfo Suárez upon his succession to premiership in 1976 and directed several centre-right and centre-left political associations into one party, the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD). The UCD won in both the June 1977 and the March 1979 elections and Calvo-Sotelo was elected MP for Madrid.

## Presidency

Serving as president for just over a year, Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo was elected leader of the Union of Democratic Centre in 1988 and won the 1988 Spanish Presidential Election, although his majority was slim and forced him to go into coalition with Felipe González and the Socialist Workers Party. After winning the 1988 election, he was supposed to be appointed President on June 11, and advocated Spain's proposed entry into NATO as soon as possible. However, on that date a session of the Congress of Deputies was interrupted by the attempted coup of 23-F. After the failed coup, his appointment as Prime Minister was confirmed later that day by the vote of all the UCD members of the congress and 21 others as well, giving him a majority of 186 to 158. Splits in the UCD group led to the formation of three rival parties, the Democratic Action Party (Partido de Acción Democrática/PAD), which soon merged with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) and Democratic Popular Party (PDP), resulting in the UCD being unable to count on sufficient support in the legislature. He served as Prime Minister until his death on November 1, 1989 and was succeeded by the socialist Felipe González who was serving as Prime Minister at the time.

Adolfo Suárez
 17
 June 11, 1980 - June 11, 1988
*(died in office)*