Jesús Aparicio-Bernal Sánchez (born june 15, 1929 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

) is a Spanish

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who began his career under the

Francoist State Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

Biography

Having read jurisdiction at university, Aparicio-Bernal became a representative (''procurador'') to the

Cortes Generales The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies meets ...

during the Francoist era, first as a trade union representative in 1955, 1958, and 1961, and for

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

between 1967 and 1977. He was also the national director of the

Sindicato Español Universitario The Sindicato Español Universitario ("Spanish University Union"; SEU) was a corporatist students' union in Spain, created in the 1930s during the Second Spanish Republic, by the Falange Española (later the Falange Española de las JONS) under th ...

(SEU), the university syndicate of the Spanish Falange movement, from 1957 to February 1962.

Rodolfo Martín Villa Rodolfo Martín Villa (born 3 October 1934) is a Spanish engineer and politician, who served in various capacities in the cabinets of the Spanish transition to democracy, including interior minister and first deputy prime minister. He is being ...

succeeded him in the post. In 1963, Aparicio-Bernal was designated as president of the Sindicato Nacional de Prensa y Gráficas. On 26 March 1964,

Manuel Fraga Iribarne Manuel Fraga Iribarne (; 23 November 1922 – 15 January 2012) was a Spanish professor and politician in Francoist Spain, who was also the founder of the People's Party. Fraga was Minister of Information and Tourism between 1962 and 1969, Ambas ...

, then Minister for Information and Tourism, appointed him as the Director General of Radio Difusión y Televisión, a position equivalent to the current

Chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service know ...

. In this capacity, on 18 July of the same year, Aparicio-Bernal ordered the creation of

Televisión Española Televisión Española (acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in ...

studios at

Prado del Rey Prado del Rey is a city located in the province of Cádiz, Spain. According to the 2005 census, the city has a population of 5,968 inhabitants. History Human remains have been found dating back to the Paleolithic but the first mention in anci ...

Pozuelo de Alarcón Pozuelo de Alarcón () is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Bordering the Moncloa-Aravaca district of Madrid proper to its west, Pozuelo de Alarcón is surrounded by large Mediterranean pine-tree forests: the Casa de Campo, the M ...

, the current central headquarters of the Corporation. As an adjunct professor, he also taught business law at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

. Aparicio-Bernal identifies as a

secular humanist Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality an ...

and an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and is strongly critical of religion.

References

1929 births Living people Politicians from Madrid Members of the Cortes Españolas Academic staff of the Complutense University of Madrid Spanish atheists Spanish humanists Secular humanists Critics of religions {{Valencia-politician-stub