José Manuel Franco Pardo (born 1957) is a Spanish politician. A member of the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gove ...

(PSOE), he has been the Secretary-General of the PSOE of the Community of Madrid since September 2017. Since 2021, he is the president of the

Consejo Superior de Deportes The National Sports Council, also called Supreme Sports Council or High Council for Sports ( es, Consejo Superior de Deportes, CSD) is a Spanish government autonomous agency responsible for the promotion, planning and development of physical cult ...

Early life

Born in A Pobra do Brollón (

province of Lugo Lugo is a province of northwestern Spain, in the northeastern part of the autonomous community of Galicia. It is bordered by the provinces of Ourense, Pontevedra, and A Coruña, the principality of Asturias, the State of León, and in th ...

) on 8 September 1957, soon after his family moved to

Monforte de Lemos Monforte de Lemos is a city and municipality in northwestern Spain, in the province of Lugo, Galicia. It covers an area of 200 km² and lies 62 km from Lugo. As of 2017 it had a population of 18,783. Location Monforte de Lemos i ...

. Franco, who dropped university studies in Mathematics early, graduated in law. From 1982 to 1987 he worked as math teacher. He is a career civil servant in the Ministry of Defence. Franco, who had joined the

(PSOE) in 1981, was a member of the Monforte de Lemos city council from 1984 to 1986.

Regional MP

He became a member of the

Assembly of Madrid The Assembly of Madrid or Madrid Assembly ( es, Asamblea de Madrid) is the unicameral autonomous legislature of the Autonomous Community of Madrid since the approval of the Madrid Charter of Autonomy in 1983. It is elected every four years duri ...

for the first time after the 1995 regional election. He renovated his seat in the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, May 2003, October 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 elections. During this spell in the regional legislature, he has served as PSOE spokesperson in the Job Commission, president of the Budget Commission, and as spokesman in the Commission of Transport and Infraestructures. After the forced resignation of

Tomás Gómez Tomás Gómez Franco (born 27 March 1968) is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), former Secretary-General of the PSOE Madrid branch. Until 2013, Gomez served as a member of the Senate of Spain. In Oct ...

in February 2015, he became the spokesman of the parliamentary group. After the 2015 election, he became deputy spokesman second to

Ángel Gabilondo Ángel Gabilondo Pujol (born 1 March 1949) is a Spanish university professor, currently serving as the 6th Ombudsman of Spain. Between 2009 and 2011, he was Minister of Education in José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's Cabinet. In June 2011, h ...

PSOE regional leader in Madrid

In 2017, Franco endorsed

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...

in the PSOE primary election campaign, becoming one of Sánchez's most trusted advisors during the campaign. Franco defended the notion that in a federal plurinational state result of a potential reform of the Constitution, Madrid, as one of the entities of that State, in the case it had to be a "nation", so be it, "we should not be scared of the name". He contested the September 2017 primary election to the leadership of the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party of the Community of Madrid The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party of the Community of Madrid ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español de la Comunidad de Madrid, PSOE–M), from 2004 to 2015 the Socialist Party of Madrid ( es, link=no, Partido Socialista de Madrid, PSM–PSOE) ...

(PSOE-M). He won the process (with a support of the 71% of the voters) and became the new Secretary-General of the organization.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franco Pardo, José Manuel 1957 births Living people Spanish municipal councillors Members of the 4th Assembly of Madrid Members of the 5th Assembly of Madrid Members of the 6th Assembly of Madrid Members of the 7th Assembly of Madrid Members of the 8th Assembly of Madrid Members of the 9th Assembly of Madrid Members of the 10th Assembly of Madrid Members of the Socialist Parliamentary Group (Assembly of Madrid) Members of the Socialist–Progressive Parliamentary Group (Assembly of Madrid) Members of the 14th Congress of Deputies (Spain)