The fourth government of

Felipe González Felipe González Márquez (; born 5 March 1942) is a retired Spanish politician who was Prime Minister of Spain from 1982 to 1996 and leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party from 1974 to 1997. He is the longest-serving democratically- ...

was formed on 14 July 1993, following the latter's election as

Prime Minister of Spain The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government (), is the head of government of Spain. The prime minister nominates the Spanish government departments, ministers and chairs the Council of Ministers (Spain), Council of Mini ...

by the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate of Spain, Senate. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has ...

on 9 July and his swearing-in on 13 July, as a result of the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * List of political parties in Spain, political party ...

(PSOE) emerging as the largest parliamentary force at the

1993 Spanish general election A General elections in Spain, general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 6 June 1993, to elect the members of the 5th . All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 256 seats in the Senate of Spain, Senate. ...

. It succeeded the third González government and was the

Government of Spain The government of Spain () is the central government which leads the executive branch and the General State Administration of the Kingdom of Spain. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and the Ministers; the prime minister has the ...

from 14 July 1993 to 6 May 1996, a total of days, or . González's fourth cabinet was an important change compared to the previous one: only five members remained in their previous

ministries Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

, four changed of portfolio and eight were new. It was described as the least political cabinet out of the four González governments, with up to six

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

figures, as well as the one with the most female ministers ( Carmen Alborch, Ángeles Amador and

Cristina Alberdi Cristina Alberdi (22 February 1946 – 27 June 2024) was a Spanish politician and lawyer. She served as minister of social affairs from 1993 to 1996. Education and career Alberdi was born in Los Rosales, a small town of the province of Seville ...

). The sole deputy prime minister's office under

Narcís Serra Narcís Serra i Serra (born 30 May 1943) is a Spanish economist and politician, serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Spain from 1991 to 1995. Born in Barcelona in 1943, he was one of the leading figures of Catalan socialism during the Spanish tr ...

from the

Socialists' Party of Catalonia The Socialists' Party of Catalonia (, PSC–PSOE) is a social democratic political party in Catalonia, Spain, resulting from the merger of three parties: the Socialist Party of Catalonia–Regrouping, led by Josep Pallach i Carolà, the Socia ...

(PSC) was maintained with increased competences on economic affairs. The parliamentary defeat of the 1996 General State Budget bill on 25 October 1995 led to the virtual downfall of González's government, which was forced to prorogue the 1995 budget and ultimately decided to dissolve parliament and call a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Snap elections in parliamentary systems are often called to resolve a political impasse such as a hung parliament where no single political party has a ma ...

. It was automatically dismissed on 4 March 1996 as a consequence of the 1996 general election, but remained in acting capacity until the next government was sworn in.

Investiture

Cabinet changes

González's fourth government saw a number of cabinet changes during its tenure: *On 18 November 1993,

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

José Luis Corcuera announced his intention to submit his resignation after the

Constitutional Court of Spain The Constitutional Court () is the supreme interpreter of the Spanish Constitution, with the power to determine the constitutionality of acts and statutes made by any public body, central, regional, or local in Spain. It is defined in Part I ...

declared the unconstitutionality of a number of provisions within the 1992 Organic Law on Protection of Citizen Security, colloquially known as the "Corcuera Law" or the "Law of kick down the door", that allowed police forces, without previous judicial authorization, to enter private properties based on the mere suspicion that a crime was being committed within. Corcuera's resignation was accepted on 24 November, and the following day Antoni Asunción was appointed to replace him at the helm of the interior ministry. *On 6 May 1994, Juan Alberto Belloch and Luis María Atienza were assigned the responsibilities of the Interior and Agriculture, Fisheries and Food ministries after the resignations of Antoni Asunción and

Vicente Albero Vicente Albero Silla (December 6, 1944, Valencia, Spain, Valencia) is a Spanish politician and economist. Albero graduated in Social Sciences and Economic Sciences from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He was a member of the Frente de Libera ...

. Asunción announced on 30 April his intention to step down from his post after it transpired that former Director-General of the Civil Guard Luis Roldán, suspected of amassing a fortune through fraudulent means during his years of service and whose monitoring was responsibility of the Interior ministry, had fled Spain to escape legal prosecution. Concurrently, Albero resigned as agriculture minister on 4 May after he became involved in a

tax fraud Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trust (property), trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax au ...

scandal. Prime Minister González accepted both ministers' resignations on 4 May 1994. As a result of the reshuffle, the

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

and Interior departments were merged into a single ministry. *On 12 June 1995, a major scandal unveiled after it transpired that the Superior Center of Defense Information (CESID), the main Spanish

intelligence agency An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy obj ...

at the time, had been recording and keeping the taped telephone conversations of dozens of prominent public figures for years, including politicians, businessmen, journalists or the King himself, apparently without the cabinet's knowledge. The scandal brought about the resignations of Julián García Vargas,

Minister of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

since 1991 and under whose authority the CESID was responsible to, but also of

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

, who had been the defence minister in the 1982 to 1991 period. Prime Minister González accepted the resignations on 28 June 1995, but despite earlier speculation on a larger reshuffle, the government changes were limited to replacing García Vargas by

Minister of Education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

Gustavo Suárez Pertierra and the incorporation of former President of the Valencian Government

Joan Lerma Joan Lerma Blasco (born 15 July 1951 in Valencia, Spain) is a Spanish politician for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), who served as the first democratically elected President of the Valencian Government since the restoration of demo ...

into the cabinet in the Public Administrations portfolio, replacing

Jerónimo Saavedra Jerónimo Saavedra Acevedo (3 July 1936 – 21 November 2023) was a Spanish politician and academic. He served as President of the Canary Islands twice, from 1983 to 1987, and again from 1991 to 1993. He became the first president of the Canar ...

who, in turn, filled Suárez Pertierra's vacancy in Education; no replacement for Narcís Serra as deputy prime minister was appointed. *On 19 December 1995,

Javier Solana Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga CYC (; born 14 July 1942) is a Spanish physicist and PSOE politician. After serving in the Spanish government as Foreign Affairs Minister under Felipe González (1992–1995) and as the Secretary Gener ...

was replaced by Carlos Westendorp in the

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...

portfolio after the former was elected as new

Secretary General of NATO The secretary general of NATO is the chief civil servant of the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an intergovernmental military alliance with 32 member states. The officeholder is an international diplomat responsible for coordinat ...

Council of Ministers

The

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

was structured into the offices for the

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, the

deputy prime minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

, 16 ministries and the post of the spokesperson of the Government. The number of

was reduced to 15 after the ministries of

and Interior were merged in 1994. The office of the deputy prime minister was left vacant from 1995.

Departmental structure

Felipe González's fourth government was organised into several superior and governing units, whose number, powers and hierarchical structure varied depending on the ministerial department. ;Unit/body rank *() Secretary of state *()

Undersecretary Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is a ...

*()

Director-general A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...

*() Autonomous agency *()

Military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

Notes

References

External links

Governments. Juan Carlos I (20.11.1975 ...)
. CCHS-CSIC (in Spanish).
Governments of Spain 1982–1996. Ministers of Felipe González
Historia Electoral.com (in Spanish).

Lluís Belenes i Rodríguez History Page (in Spanish). {{DEFAULTSORT:González government 4 1993 establishments in Spain 1996 disestablishments in Spain Cabinets established in 1993 Cabinets disestablished in 1996 Council of Ministers (Spain)