Santiago Casares Quiroga

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Santiago Casares Quiroga (A Coruña, 1884 - Paris, 1950) was a Galician politician who was Prime Minister of Spain from May 13 to July 19, 1936.

Casares Quiroga was Prime Minister when a military rebellion sparkled the Spanish Civil War. He was a signatory to the Pact of San Sebastián of 1930 and a member of the Revolutionary Committee that helped set up the Second Spanish Republic in April 1931 and was a representative for Organización Republicana Gallega Autónoma (ORGA) in the Cortes. He headed several ministries (Navy, 1931; Interior, 1931-33, 1936) in governments presided over by Manuel Azaña, and upon Azaña's election as President of the Republic after the electoral triumph of the Popular Front, became prime minister. Emilio Mola, a military delegate to the government, organised a military coup on July 17th at 17:00 pm. General Francisco Franco declared war on the regime the day after. Visibly incapable of dealing with the crisis, Casares Quiroga resigned the next day. Diego Martínez Barrio took his office for a few hours, followed by José Giral. The Spanish Civil War started when the coup failed to bring the Republic down.