Francisco Álvarez–Cascos Fernández (born 1 October 1947) is a Spanish politician. He was

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

of the ruling Partido Popular from 1989 to 1999 and the President of the Principality of Asturias from 2011 to 2012. Álvarez-Cascos studied

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

ing, and after working in an architect office and then for an architects association for a few years, he soon became a professional politician. In 1976 he joined Reforma Democrática, which later merged into Alianza Popular, both

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

-wing

parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

. He was the spokesman for the

Gijón Gijón () or () is a city and municipality in north-western Spain. It is the largest city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality by population in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Asturias. It is located on the coa ...

Council between 1979 and 1986, a county councilor and a member of the regional Pre-Autonomous Body. In 1982, after Alianza Popular

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

into the center-

People's Party, he was elected

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

for

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

, a position which he combined with that of spokesman for the People's Party

Parliamentary Group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political party, political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller politic ...

in the General Junta of the Principate of Asturias (Asturias' regional

legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...

) from 1983 onwards. In 1986 he was elected deputy for

and was re-elected in 1989, 1993, 1996 and 2000. At the 9th National Congress of the People's Party, he was elected

. He was confirmed three times in this office at the national congresses of the PP which took place in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

(1990) and

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

(1993 and 1996). Álvarez-Cascos was First

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

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 Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

for a few years.

President of Asturias

In 2009, a sector of the party began to ask him to become PP's candidate for President of Asturias, organizing meetings and a campaign for his nomination. The regional party leadership led 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 Mariano Rajoy Brey (, ; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a 2018 vote of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy, vote of no confidence ousted his government. A m ...

declined to support him against the attacks within his party, so he resigned from the party. In May 2011 he managed in just five months to create a new party Asturian Forum, which obtained a plurality of 16 out of the 45 seats in the Asturian autonomous parliament. He was inaugurated as President of Asturias. After six months of minority government and the PP and PSOE (which together had an absolute majority of seats) declining every bill, his regional budget for 2012 was rejected. This blocked situation forced him to resign on 30 January 2012 and call for new elections to be held on 25 March. Asturian Forum lost 4 seats, ending up second behind the Socialist Party.

Bárcenas affair

As part of the Bárcenas affair, it was revealed that Francisco Álvarez Cascos received 421,693 euros of cash from the Popular Party between 1990 and 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez-Cascos, Francisco 1947 births Living people Presidents of the Principality of Asturias Politicians from Madrid People from Asturias Government ministers of Spain People's Party (Spain) politicians Members of the 3rd Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 4th Congress of Deputies (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) Polytechnic University of Madrid alumni Deputy prime ministers of Spain Spanish civil engineers