José Luis Centella Gómez (born 1958) is a

Communist Party of Spain The Communist Party of Spain ( es, Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a Marxist-Leninist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving a ...

(PCE) politician. He served in the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members elect ...

from 1995 to 2004 and 2011 to 2015. He was his party's secretary general from 2009 to 2018, subsequently becoming its president.

Biography

Born in Córdoba, Centella became a teacher and was elected to the town council in Benalmádena in 1987. In 1995, he became a member of the

representing Málaga, succeeding Antonio Romero Ruiz who was running for mayor. In October 1996, he sent 1,373 pesetas (less than €10) to prime minister José María Aznar in protest at government spending for the province of Málaga; the amount was what Centella estimated to be the government's spend per person in the province. During his time on congressional commissions, Centella spoke on issues such as the olive and fishing industries, recovering the works of

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and Cuba–Spain relations. A critic of

Jesús Gil Gregorio Jesús Gil y Gil (12 March 1933 – 14 May 2004) was a Spanish businessman and politician. He served as Mayor of Marbella between 1991 and 2002, and presided for a 16-year tenure as president of the football club Atlético de Madrid ...

, the right-wing mayor of

Marbella Marbella ( , , ) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the reg ...

, he successfully campaigned for an audit of Gil's city council, as well as an investigation into the finances of

Seville Expo '92 The Seville Expo '92 was a universal exposition that took place from Monday, April 20 to Monday, October 12, 1992, on La Isla de La Cartuja (Charterhouse Island), Seville, Spain. The theme for the expo was "The Age of Discovery", celebrating the ...

. He succeeded Felipe Alcaraz as secretary general of the

Communist Party of Andalusia Communist Party of Andalusia (in Spanish: ''Partido Comunista de Andalucía'') is the federation of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) in Andalusia. History PCA was founded in 1979, as the Andalusian branch of PCE was converted into a regional par ...

in 2002, and lost his seat in congress in the 2004 election. In November 2009, he succeeded

Francisco Frutos Francisco "Paco" Frutos Gras (6 September 1939 – 26 July 2020) was a Spanish politician who served, from 1998 until 2009, as the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE). Biography He was born on 6 September 1939 in Calella ...

as secretary general of the PCE, by unanimous vote. Centella returned to the Congress of Deputies in the 2011 election, as the leader of the United Left (UI) in the Seville constituency. He did not stand for re-election in 2015, and in 2018 he was succeeded as secretary general of the PCE by Enrique Santiago, moving into the party's new office of president.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Centella, Jose Luis 1958 births Living people People from Córdoba, Spain Politicians from Andalusia Municipal councillors in the province of Málaga Communist Party of Spain politicians Leaders of political parties in Spain Members of the 5th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 6th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 7th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 10th Congress of Deputies (Spain)