Francisco Álvarez Cascos

Francisco Álvarez Cascos
7th President of the Principality of Asturias
In office July 15, 2011 – May 26, 2012
Monarch	Juan Carlos I
Preceded by	Vicente Álvarez Areces
Succeeded by	Javier Fernández Fernández
Personal details
Born	(1947-10-01) October 1, 1947 Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Political party	Foro Asturias (FAC) (2011–present)
Other political affiliations	PP (1976-2009)

Francisco Álvarez Cascos (born October 1, 1947) is a Spanish civil engineer and politician. He was President of the Principality of Asturias from 2011 to 2012.

In 1976, he joined Reforma Democrática and Alianza Popular, two right-wing parties. He was the spokesman for the Gijón Council between 1979 and 1986, county councillor and regional adviser of the Pre-Autonomous Body.

In 1982, after the merger of Alianza Popular into the center-right People's Party, he was elected senator for Asturias, a position which he combined with that of spokesman for the People's Party Parliamentary Group in the General Junta of the Principate of Asturias (Asturias' regional legislature) from 1983 onwards. In 1986 he was elected deputy for Asturias and was re-elected in 1989, 1993, 1996 and 2000.^[1]

At the 9th National Congress, he was elected Secretary-General of the People's Party and was confirmed in this office at the last three national congresses of the PP which took place in Seville (1990) and Madrid (1993 and 1996).

He was First Vice President of the Government and Minister of the Presidency for the 1996-2000 term, and Minister for Development for the 2000-2004 term.

In 2004, he resigned from Congress and left politics. In 2009, the party grassroots began to ask him to become PP's candidate for President of Asturias, organizing meetings and a campaign for his nomination all over the country, however the regional party leaders lead by Gabino de Lorenzo rejected him as a candidate and insulted him since he wanted to fire many of the people in charge in the party for decades losing election after election. The national leader Mariano Rajoy declined to support him against the attacks within his party, so he resigned membership of the party.

President of Asturias

In May 2011 he was able in just 5 months to create a full new party and win the elections to the Asturian autonomous parliament, and he was inaugurated as President of Asturias. His party, Asturian Forum, got 16 out of the 45 seats in the chamber. After six months of minority government and the two establishment parties (PP and PSOE) declining every bill and actually ruling from the opposition (they had absolute majority of seats despite not being in the government), his regional budget for 2012 was rejected again by the establishment parties (PP-PSOE) who voted together. This absurd situation of the establishment parties blocking his government from the opposition forced him to resign on January 30, 2012 - he called for new elections to be held on March 25.^[2]

See also

• Bárcenas affair

References

v t e Presidents of the Principality of Asturias Rafael Fernández Pedro de Silva Juan Luis Rodríguez-Vigil Antonio Trevín Sergio Marqués Vicente Álvarez Areces Francisco Álvarez Cascos Javier Fernández