Franco's Last Aide Aims to Soldier on
The only Francoist minister still active in Spanish politics, Manuel Fraga, announced yesterday that he will seek re-election as premier of Galicia region, in the north-west. Mr Fraga, 81, was General Francisco Franco's minister of information and tourism in the 1960s and remained loyal...
The only Francoist minister still active in Spanish politics, Manuel Fraga, announced yesterday that he will seek re-election as premier of Galicia region, in the north-west.
Mr Fraga, 81, was General Francisco Franco's minister of information and tourism in the 1960s and remained loyal to the dictator until his death.
Known to supporters as Don Manuel, he has run the semi-autonomous government of Galicia since 1989, winning four elections in a row.
A fifth victory would make him one of Europe's oldest working politicians.
"Get ready to put up with me for another legislature," he said, comparing himself to the German postwar chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who left office aged 87.
With regional elections due next year, Mr Fraga aims to remain in his post until he is 86.
"I am in fine form," he said, adding that one reason he was staying was to prevent infighting in the Galician section of the People's party.
Mr Fraga became a key player in the political transition when Spain tilted towards democracy, after Franco's 1975 death, under the newly restored monarchy.
He founded the rightwing People's Alliance party and became the right's representative on the commission which drafted the 1978 constitution.
The party later changed its name to People's party and, after several failed attempts to win power nationally, Mr Fraga gave control to his chosen successor José María Aznar, who became prime minister in 1996 and was defeated in March this year.
Mr Fraga remains the People's party's "founding president". The opposition attacks his Francoist past and accuses him of running Galicia as a personal fiefdom.
As information minister he was the Franco regime's chief censor, though he also introduced new freedoms in the press and publishing which historians say helped increase the pressure for democratic change.
In the past decade Mr Fraga has several times announced his imminent retirement from active politics, only to claim that for the good of his party, Galicia or Spain, he has been persuaded to stay on.
Mr Fraga, 81, was General Francisco Franco's minister of information and tourism in the 1960s and remained loyal to the dictator until his death.
Known to supporters as Don Manuel, he has run the semi-autonomous government of Galicia since 1989, winning four elections in a row.
A fifth victory would make him one of Europe's oldest working politicians.
"Get ready to put up with me for another legislature," he said, comparing himself to the German postwar chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who left office aged 87.
With regional elections due next year, Mr Fraga aims to remain in his post until he is 86.
"I am in fine form," he said, adding that one reason he was staying was to prevent infighting in the Galician section of the People's party.
Mr Fraga became a key player in the political transition when Spain tilted towards democracy, after Franco's 1975 death, under the newly restored monarchy.
He founded the rightwing People's Alliance party and became the right's representative on the commission which drafted the 1978 constitution.
The party later changed its name to People's party and, after several failed attempts to win power nationally, Mr Fraga gave control to his chosen successor José María Aznar, who became prime minister in 1996 and was defeated in March this year.
Mr Fraga remains the People's party's "founding president". The opposition attacks his Francoist past and accuses him of running Galicia as a personal fiefdom.
As information minister he was the Franco regime's chief censor, though he also introduced new freedoms in the press and publishing which historians say helped increase the pressure for democratic change.
In the past decade Mr Fraga has several times announced his imminent retirement from active politics, only to claim that for the good of his party, Galicia or Spain, he has been persuaded to stay on.
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