(1932 - 2014) was a politician and Spanish lawyer, prime minister of Spain between 1976 and 1981. For his services to the country, King John Charles I of Spain granted the duchy of Suarez, with greatness of Spain, and was also a Knight of the Illustrious Order of the Golden Fleece He was retired from public life since 2003, as consequence of Alzheimer's disease. He died on March 23, 2014 due to pneumonia.
Adolph was born in Cebreros (autonomous community of Castile and León) by decision of his mother, for there had their family roots. However, his residence was already established in the city of Avila. He had four brothers.
His mother was a devout daughter of small business woman, while her father was a court attorney (a player and ladies' man) with whom he never got along.
Adolph was never a good student. He went through several schools, not reading and hobbies had more to do with the holidays, sports and card games. It was a natural leader in his gang and was very attractive to women. Also corresponded to the religiosity of his mother founding and presiding from his teenage various organizations associated with Catholic Action.
He married Amparo Illana, with whom he had five children: Mary (Mariam familiarly called), Adolph, Laura, Sonsoles and Francisco.
He studied law at the University of Salamanca, graduating with certain difficulties. In early 1955, there were only recently got his first paying job in Charities of Avila, where his father ran away from home as a result of a business scandal. Unable to keep himself to his family in August met Falangist linked to Opus Dei, Fernando Herrero Tejedor, who had just been appointed civil governor and provincial head of the Movement in Avila and became his political mentor, helping hold in his profession.
At the beginning of the course 1958 - 1959 he entered the Colegio Mayor Francisco Franco-located in the University City of Madrid in order to prepare oppositions. He received his Ph.D. in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid. He held various positions within the structures of the dictatorship. Thus, in 1958, became part of the General Secretariat of the ascending movement, in 1961, to Chief of the Technical Office of the Deputy Secretary General, Attorney in cuts in 1967 Avila and Segovia Civil Governor of Year 1968. In 1969 he was appointed Director General of Radio Spanish Television, where he remained in office until 1973.
On 11 December 1975, it became part of the first cabinet of President Arias Navarro, formed after the death of the dictator Franco. At the suggestion of Torcuato Fernandez, Adolph, was appointed Minister Secretary General of the Movement.
On June 9, 1976, in a speech on the Law of Political Associations in the Spanish Courts before his election, he cited a verse the poet Antonio Machado, who died in exile:
"Allow me to finish ... and remember the verses of a Spanish poet:
Is today opened for the morning
Tomorrow at infinity
Men of Spain:
Neither the past is dead
Nor is the writing tomorrow or yesterday."
When in July 1976, King Juan Charles I of Spain asked him to form the second government of his reign and the subsequent dismantling of the dictatorial political, Adolph was a stranger to most of the Spanish people. However, at age 43, with no little difficulty, he was able to bring together a group of politicians of his generation who had come to the democratic convictions in various ways. Able to gather together a fascist "converts" as him, Social Democrats, Liberals, Christian Democrats, etc.. and between 1976 and 1979, dismantle the fascist regime with the complicity of the fascist parties like the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) and especially the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) and its leader, Santiago Carrillo, who called Adolph as "an intelligent anticommunist".
In this task, enlisted the help of Torcuato Fernández, among others, who managed the reverse of fascist Courts and take forward the project of political reform to a suspicious democratic opposition and with the collaboration of Lieutenant General Manuel Gutiérrez, responsible for reassurance and control, if possible, to the high military, composed, for the most part, military areas that participated in the Spanish Civil War and prone to fascist regime.
On 15 June 1977, for the first time in Spain since 1936, free elections were held. Adolph stood as the winner of the same, in front of a giant central party, gathered around him, under the symbol UCD (Union Democratic Center). Courts chosen in those elections, converted Constituent Cortes approved the Constitution, which the Spanish people endorsing on 6 December 1978.
On 3 March 1979, Adolph second time winning the general election, and began his third term as Prime Minister. However, the victory in the elections was much in the background after the accession of the Left parties to the main municipalities of the country after the first municipal elections in April. The agreement between the PSOE and PCE allowed big Spanish cities were governed by mayors from opposition parties.
It was a stage full of political governance difficulties, social and economic. In 1980, the PSOE presented a motion of censure, although defeated in advance, further damaged the image of an Adolf devoid of support in his own party. Finally, on 29 January 1981, he resigned both as Prime Minister as head of the political party Democratic Union Center. In his message to the country, which lasted 12 minutes and was broadcast on Spanish TV at 19:40, said:
"I do not want the democratic system of coexistence be, again, a parenthesis in the history of Spain"
This led to think that Adolph resigned under pressure from the military. This theory seemed confirmed by the attempted coup that took place on 23 February 1981, during the investiture of Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo. That same year, the King John Charles I of Spain granted the title of Duke of Suárez, by virtue of its role in the transition process.
In 1996 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, for their important contribution to the Spanish transition to democracy, which is considered a great architect.
Both his wife Amparo (1935 - 2001), and his daughter Mary (1962 - 2004), suffered and died of cancer. Amparo died on 17 May 2001 at age 66, at his home in Madrid after being operated on in 1994 for breast cancer suffering. Mary died almost 3 years later, on 7 March 2004, at age 41 in Madrid. Another daughter of Adolph, Sonsoles, television presenter, has also suffered from breast cancer. Adolph has three other children: Adolph who was a candidate for president of the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha in 2003, Laura, who also suffered breast cancer and was operated successfully in 2012, and Francisco.
Des 2003, Adolph, did not reappear in public, just being his son Adolph who, during an interview for "Cherries" from Spanish Television May 31, 2005, made public program that former President Adolfo, suffered from Alzheimer's disease for 2 years, so do not even remember having been President of the Government and did not recognize anyone, responding only to affective stimuli. That same year, give the "Players" Presenter program Luis del Olmo (Punto Radio) was made a tribute to which were added: his son Adolph, Santiago Carrillo, former President Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, former President Felipe Gonzalez, former President Jose Maria Aznar and the then Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
On 8 June 2007, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the first democratic elections after the dictatorship, King John Charles I of Spain named him Knight of the Illustrious Order of the Golden Fleece, for its significant performance in the Spanish transition . Unable to attend, his poor health, his son picked up the award, who read a speech on behalf of his father.
On 21 March 2014, his son Adolph announced that the state of his father's health had deteriorated due to pneumonia and that the "end was imminent", revealing that he was hospitalized in critical condition. Two days later he died in a clinic in Madrid, aged 81.
At the chapel, installed in the House of Representatives, came to see him off big political personalities, the Kings of Spain, the princes of Asturias, the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the three former presidents (except Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, they died in 2008). Also attended by thousands of citizens, reaching queues will form two kilometers outside the funeral home chapel. The state funeral will be held on May 31 this year.
