Gaspar Llamazares

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Gaspar Llamazares in a meeting of PCA (Asturian Communist Party)

Gaspar Llamazares Trigo M.D (born November 28, 1957 in Logroño, La Rioja, Spain) is a Spanish politician. He is the leader of the leftist coalition Izquierda Unida (IU, United Left) since 2001, in the post of General Coordinator. He is a member of Communist Party of Spain (PCE).

1 Early Years and Carreer
2 Early Political Carreer
3 Major Political Carreer
4 See also

[edit] Early Years and Carreer

Second of six brothers and sisters, he spent his childhood and youth in Salinas, Castrillón, Asturias. He studied medicine in the Autonomous University of Madrid and in the University of Oviedo, where he received his degree. There he founded "Bocetos", a medical publication attempting to focus especially on the social issues of medicine, unlike the biological paradigms then dominating in medicine. He then completed his studies with a Masters in Public Health in the University of Havana, in Cuba. In 1985, back in Spain, he started teaching in the University of Santiago de Compostela and then in the Unidad Docente de Medicina de Familia in Cazoña (Cantabria).

[edit] Early Political Carreer

He entered the Communist Party in 1981. In 1988 he was elected Secretary General and General Coordinator of Izquierda Unida in Asturias. In 1991 he was elected deputy to the regional parliament of Asturias, where he was spokesman for Izquierda Unida's group. In this chamber, IU collaborated with governments of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party until 1995.

Llamazares was the General Secretary of the PCE in the autonomous community of Asturias and member of Asturias' Parliament between 1988 and 2000.

[edit] Major Political Carreer

Llamazares was elected deputy in the Spanish Congress for the constituency of Asturias in the 2000 General Elections. Following the bad results obtained by IU in that elections (20 deputies in 1996 and 8 in 2000), Llamazares announced his intentions to run for the post of General Coordinator in the Coalition's XI Federal Assembly due to be celebrated December that year. During the Assembly the post was contended by Francisco Frutos Secretary General of the Communist Party of Spain and Angeles Maestro that was supported by the most radical factions of IU along with Llamazares, who was supported by the then General Coordinator Julio Anguita. In the Election for the Political Committee the list backing Llamazares obtained 32 seats whilst the list backing Frutos obtained 30 seats and the list backing maestro obtained 13 seats. In the following election of the General Coordinator Maestro's supporters abstained, allowing Llamazares to be elected as General Coordinator. Being the General Coordinator Llamazares was also designated as IU's parliamentary leader.

During the 2000-2004 legislature Llamazares was a one of the most vocal opponents against Jose Maria Aznar's government in congress.

Llamazares was reelected General Coordinator in the VII Federal Assembly of IU held in December, 2003 where he was contested by Luis Carlos Rejon then Deputy for Cordoba who was backed by several regional minorities along with the new leftist faction "Espacio Alternativo" and Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo Mayor of Marinaleda, Seville who was supported by the more radical factions of IU (mainly Corriente Roja and CUT). Llamazares obtained clear majority and was appointed candidate for the Prime Ministership.

In the 2004 general election, Llamazares was elected Deputy for Madrid (as it is tradition for the Prime Ministerial Candidates of the national parties to be candidates for Madrid) but IU obtained it's worst result ever remaining only with 3 seats in Congress. This led to a big number of members of IU to put the Blame of the results on Llamazares. In the 2004 European Parliament election IU won only 1 MEP from the previous 4 in 1999 (IU was in a joint list with Initiative For Catalonia the won 2 MEPs one for each that joined separate groups in Parliament). That led to Llamazares to call for an Extraordinary Assembly.

In the VIII Assembly of IU (Extraordinary) Llamazares, who was backed by the more centrist Factions of IU as well as the Green-left factions and the more nationalist leaning factions, was contested by Enrique Santiago, a human rights lawyer initially supported by the young cadres, and later Communist Party of Spain leadership, and Sebastian Martin Recio, Mayor of Carmona, Seville supported by the Andalusian minority as well as "Espacio Alternativo". (Previously Santiago and Martin Recio Reached an agreement to vote in to the most supported of both in the political council. Llamazares won 54 seats, while Santiago won 42 and Martin Recio 14. The sum of Santiago and Martin Recio lists gave the first 56 votes. But a last hour amendment introduced during the assembly to the IU by-laws, giving the General Coordinators of the Federations the right to vote for the General Coordinator threw a result of 67 for Llamazares, 51 against and 8 abstentions. Allowing Llamzares to be reelected as Coordinator General.