José Antonio Girón de Velasco (28 August 1911,

Herrera de Pisuerga Herrera de Pisuerga is a municipality located in the province of Palencia, Castile and León, Spain. It takes its name from the River Pisuerga. According to the 2004 census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of sy ...

Palencia Palencia () is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Palencia. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half of ...

– 22 August 1995,

Fuengirola Fuengirola () is a city on the Costa del Sol in the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. It is located on the central coast of the province and integrated into the region of the Costa del Sol and the Com ...

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

) was a prominent

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

Falangist Falangism () was the political ideology of three political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española, the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS), and afterwa ...

politician. He was minister of Labor (1941–57), counselor of the

Council of the Realm The Council of the Realm () was a corporate organ of Francoist Spain, created by the Law of Succession to the Headship of the State of 1947. Within the institutional complex created to hierarchize the regime of Francisco Franco (the so-called " ...

and member of the ''

Cortes Españolas The Cortes Españolas (), known informally as the Cortes franquistas (), was the name of the legislative institution promulgated by the ''Caudillo'' of Spain Francisco Franco which was established on 17 July 1942 (the sixth anniversary of th ...

''. He was one of the most heard voices against any kind of changes during the last years of

Francoist regime Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in ...

, taking part in the political group known as " the Bunker", for their reluctance to the

Spanish transition to democracy The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as (; ) or (), is a period of History of Spain, modern Spanish history encompassing the regime change that moved from the Francoist dictatorship to the consolidation of a parliamentary system ...

after Franco's death. He began his political activities during his university studies in

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

. In 1931 he joined '' Juventudes Castellanas de Acción Hispánica'' (Castilian Youth for Spanish Action), a small political group founded in Valladolid by

Onésimo Redondo Onésimo Redondo Ortega (16 February 1905 – 24 July 1936) was a Spanish Falangist politician. He founded the Juntas Castellanas de Actuación Hispánica, a political group that merged with Ramiro Ledesma's Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindic ...

, that would merge with Ramiro Ledesma's ''

Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista (, JONS) was a nationalist and fascist movement in 1930s Spain. In 1934, it merged with the Falange Española into the Falange Española de las JONS. History JONS was founded on 10 October 1931 as the f ...

'' (Unions of the National-Syndicalist Offensive) and

José Antonio Primo de Rivera José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquess of Estella GE (24 April 1903 – 20 November 1936), often referred to simply as José Antonio, was a Spanish fascist politician who founded the Falan ...

's ''

Falange Española de las JONS The Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (; FE de las JONS) was a fascist political party founded in Spain in 1934 as merger of the Falange Española and the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista. FE de las JO ...

''. He fought in the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

on the Nationalist side and commanded units of Falangist militias. After the war, he was appointed national delegate of Veterans and in 1941 minister of Labor, when he was only 30. He deployed an intense activity, like the labor institutes for training workers and the development of the social security system ('). He was removed from the Ministry in 1957 according to the liberalizing shift that Franco wished for the

Spanish economy The economy of Spain is a highly developed social market economy. It is the world's 12th largest by nominal GDP and the sixth-largest in Europe (fifth excluding Russia). Spain is a member of the European Union and the eurozone, as well as the ...

(

Stabilization Plan The Stabilization Plan of 1959 () or the National Plan of Economic Stabilization () were a series of economic measures taken by the Spanish Government in 1959. Its main goal was the economic liberalization of the Spanish markets, marking a turni ...

). The previous year, Girón had decreed a salary increase that the Spanish economy could not afford. Throughout Francoism, Girón was one of the leaders of Falange and he increasingly showed his dissent, according to the Falangist principles, to many policies of the regime. Notably, he was strongly opposed to opportunism. He yearned for the Falangist 'pending revolution', as Primo de Rivera's ideas just inspired a few policies but Francoism was not really an actual Falangist regime, but a consensus of rightist and authoritarian tendencies. After Franco's death, both he and

Blas Piñar Blas Piñar López (22 November 1918 – 28 January 2014) was a Spanish far-right politician. Having connections to Catholic organizations, during the Francoist dictatorship he directed the Institute of Hispanic Culture (''Instituto de Cultur ...

were the natural leaders of the "Bunker" in the ''Cortes Españolas'', and voted against the

Political Reform Act The Political Reform Act (Law 1/1977, of 4 JanuaryLaw 1/1977, ...

of 1976 that allowed the transition to democracy. Girón died on 22 August 1995.

References

Bibliography

*Bardavío, Joaquín; Sinova, Justino: ''Todo Franco: franquismo y antifranquismo de la A a la Z'', Barcelona: Plaza & Janés, 2000 *Girón, José Antonio: ''Si la memoria no me falla'', Barcelona: Planeta (

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

) * Payne, Stanley: ''The Franco regime, 1936-1975'', Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987 * Preston, Paul: ''Franco: a Biography'', New York: BasicBooks, 1993 {{DEFAULTSORT:Giron, Jose Antonio 1911 births 1995 deaths People from the Province of Palencia Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War People from Francoist Spain Spanish Falangists Labour ministers of Spain FET y de las JONS politicians