Emilio Pérez Touriño

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President of Galicia Emilio Pérez Touriño
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Emilio Pérez Touriño (born 1948 in A Coruña) is a professional socialist politician and the current president of the Spanish autonomous community of Galicia, in the extreme northwest of Spain. Galicia is one of the three historic nationalities which had already attained this status before the Spanish Civil war in 1936 and was recognized in 1978 by the Spanish Constitution.

Touriño replaced Manuel Fraga as president in the 2005, as a result of winning the Galician elections after sixteen years as a leader of the opposition. The ruling conservative PP (Partido Popular, 'People's Party' in English) lost its overall majority after 25 years of almost uninterrupted rule in the country. The PP remained the largest party in the Galician parliament, but it was replaced in the Galician government by a coalition led by the PSdeG (Partido dos Socialistas de Galicia, 'Galician Socialists' Party'), the regional branch of the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, 'Spanish Workers Socialist Party').

The PSdeG's coalition partner is the BNG (Bloque Nacionalista Galego, 'Galician Nationalist Bloc'). The BNG is a Galician nationalist party much discussed by Galician independentists because of the mildness of his views. Touriño got the presidency, which he shares with the leadership of his Party, and the leader of the BNG, Anxo Quintana became Vice-President where he has shown interest in social affairs.

Both coalition parties have been engaged by the Spanish Prime Minister, Zapatero in reviewing the current Statute of Autonomy, in order to produce changes in the status of Galician as a part of the Spanish State. But there are serious doubts about the democratic clearness of the proceedings used to pass the Catalonian Statute of Autonomy, the first phase of the campaign.