Estanislao Figueras

Preceded By

**Estanislao Figueras y de Moragas** (November 13, 1819 – November 11, 1882) was a Spanish statesman, republican, and lawyer who served as the first President of Spain and chairman of the Provisional Republican Government from February 12, 1873 to June 11, 1875.

Born in Barcelona in late 1819, Estanilao Figueras grew up in a middle class family in southern Spain and was privately tutored between 1826 and 1837. In 1844, Figueras graduated with a law decree from Barcelona University, before moving to Tarragona to start his career as a lawyer. After a short and largely uneventful career as a lawyer, Figueras joined the Democratic Party in 1849, before being elected as a regional deputy for Tarragona in 1851. During the Progressive Biennium under Queen Isabella II, the regional government of Tarragona was replaced by a Revolutionary Junta under Figueras' leadership, which sought to implement radical liberal reforms to the government; Figueras' initiatives were largely replicated across the country by other junta bodies. In 1855 he was elected deputy to national Cortes and became the leader of the republican political faction; following the forceful end of the Progressive Biennium in 1856 and the writing of a new constitution, Figueras advocated decentralizing the Spanish state down to a regional level and confiscating Catholic land, though his proposals were not enacted. During the Glorious Revolution of September 1868, Figueras joined the Democratic Republican party led by Francesc Pi y Margall and founded the federalist newspaper *La Igualdad*.

In February 1873, after the abdication of King Amadeo I and the nullification of the 1869 constitution of Spain, Estanilao Figueras was elected as the president of the Cortes Generales, making him in effect the *de-facto* leader of the country in absence of a government or monarch. The following day, Figueras was elected as chairman of the Provisional Republican Government and president of the Executive Power by the republican dominated National Assembly; with his appointment to the joint titles, the National Assembly voted to establish the Republic of Spain on February 12, 1873, marking the end of the centuries-old Kingdom of Spain. In order to assume his positions, Figueras renounced his political party membership and became an independent member of the Cortes.

During his presidency, Estanilao Figueras presided over the creation of several key republican institutions. Between February and August 1873, Figueras was the presiding officer of a constitutional convention within the Cortes Generales and sought to moderate between the federalist Democratic Republicans and the conservative Centrist Party; the final constitutional draft was agreed upon by the Cortes on August 19, 1873 and was enacted the same day. Under the new constitution, the role of president of the Executive Power became separated from the legislative branch and instead assumed the role of leader of the Council of Ministers. Similarly, a singular five year presidential term limit was imposed, though this was increased to two five year terms in 1874, and sovereignty was granted to the constitution. The Figueras administration was also marked by a considerable amount of internal reorganisation, with the new constitution granting significant degrees of autonomy to each of the 19 regions of Spain. Despite his role as the founding president of the Spanish republic, Figueras' government faced significant internal disunity due to the ideological coalition required to retain the support of the Cortes; consequently, following the failure of the government to pass a budget, Figueras dismissed the Provisional Republican Government in February 1875 and established a minority government with the backing of the Democratic Republican party, which in turn carried out Figueras' will and set the date for early presidential elections as being June 1, 1875. Before retiring from office, in a session of the Council of Ministers, Figueras was reported to have snapped: "Gentlemen, I can't take it anymore. I'm going to be frank: I'm fed up with all of us!".

Figueras declined to contest the 1875 presidential election and retired from active politics, although he re-joined the Democratic Republican party in late 1875. He died on November 11, 1882 of old age and was afforded a state funeral.