José Maldonado González (12 November 1900, in Tineo,

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 ...

– 11 February 1985, in

Oviedo Oviedo () or Uviéu (Asturian language, Asturian: ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains th ...

) was the last

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of the Spanish Republican government in Exile. Elected in the

1936 Spanish general election Legislative elections were held in Spain on 16 February 1936. At stake were all 473 seats in the unicameral Cortes Generales. The winners of the 1936 elections were the Popular Front, a left-wing coalition of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Par ...

as a deputy for Oviedo province, he was a member of the Republican Left party, which formed part of the Popular Front. In 1938, several months before the end of the Spanish Civil War and the fall of the Second Spanish Republic, Maldonado fled to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Already in exile, Maldonado held positions in many parts of the national Republican government, such as Minister of Justice (1949–1951) and Minister of Justice and Information (1962–1971). At a more practical level, Maldonado lived in Paris and held a variety of teaching jobs. He was also active as a

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

. In 1970 he succeeded

Luis Jiménez de Asúa Luis Jiménez de Asúa (June 19, 1889 in Madrid – November 16, 1970 in Buenos Aires) was a jurist and Spanish politician. He was vice president of the Spanish parliament and representative of that country before the United Nations. During the ...

as President of the Republic in exile. In 1977 he recognized the

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

in Spain and agreed on the Republic in exile ceasing international relations and disband, as agreed with president

José López Portillo José Guillermo Abel López Portillo y Pacheco (; 16 June 1920 – 17 February 2004) was a Mexican writer, lawyer, and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 58th president of Mexico from 1976 ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

References

Offices and titles

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maldonado Gonzalez, Jose 1900 births 1985 deaths People from Tineo Radical Socialist Republican Party politicians Republican Left (Spain) politicians Presidents of Spain Government ministers of Spain Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic Politicians from Asturias Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction) Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in France Exiled Spanish politicians