Miguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón
Miguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón[n. 1] (born 18 June 1940) is a Spanish jurist and politician. A member of the Union of the Democratic Centre until 1982, then of People's Alliance and its successor, the People's Party,[1] he is one of the "Fathers of the Constitution", the seven legislators who participating in the draft of the Spanish constitutional text passed in 1978.
Miguel Herrero de Miñón | |
---|---|
In 2015 | |
Member of the Congress of Deputies | |
In office 15 June 1977 – 6 June 1993 | |
Constituency | Madrid |
Personal details | |
Born | Miguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón 18 June 1940 Madrid, Spain |
Political party | UCD (until 1982) AP (1982–1989) PP (1989–2004) |
Ideology
Self-described as an "españolista de la España Grande"[2] (roughly "spanishist of the Great Spain"), Herrero de Miñón has been placed as representative of a fringe strand of nationalism advocate of neoforalism within the Spanish conservative spectrum.[3]
University education: legal and philosophical
Son of high school professor and hispanist Miguel Herrero García, he studied law in Madrid, where, as he says in his Memoirs of Summer, he was "more studious than a student".[4] After graduating in 1961, he earned his doctorate in 1965 with a thesis on the Constitutional Law that emerged after decolonization. He completed his training at Oxford, in Paris and in Louvain, where he graduated in Philosophy in 1968. A lawyer with the Council of State since 1966, he soon began to collaborate with the press -Diario Ya, Diario Madrid, Informaciones-, spreading his ideas about what the transition to the death of Francisco Franco should be.[5]
In 1975, he married Cristina Jáuregui Segurola, daughter of Ramón Jáuregui Epalza and M.ª Luisa Segurola Guereca.
Political Activity
Rodríguez de Miñón was Technical Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice, collaborating very actively in the first amnesty (1976), in the Law for Political Reform and in the first electoral regulations of the newborn democracy. He participated in the drafting of the 1978 Constitution and held the position of spokesman in the Congress of Deputies, both for the governing party (UCD) and the opposition (AP). He was a deputy for the UCD from 1977 to 1981. Some authors have identified him as one of the architects of the "harassment and demolition operation" against Adolfo Suárez, which reportedly ended with his being crowned head of the UCD parliamentary group.[6] Herrero de Miñón also reportedly maintained contacts with political leaders of the opposition with the aim of removing Suárez from power.[6]
He left UCD in February 1982 and joined Alianza Popular in July of that year.[6][7] He was also elected as an AP and PP deputy in the 1982, 1986 and 1989 elections.
In 1979, he was elected councillor of the Madrid City Council in the April municipal elections.[8] In 1987, he ran for President of Alianza Popular, but was defeated by Antonio Hernández Mancha.
Decorations and awards
- Great Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (1978)[9]
- "Friend of the Basques" Award (1998)[10]
- Creu de Sant Jordi (2000)[11]
- Collar of the Order of Civil Merit (2003)[12]
- Doctor honorary /hon./ Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) (2017)
- Doctor honorary /hon./ Universidad Pontificia Comillas (2018)[13]
References
- Informational notes
- Also referred to simply as "Miguel Herrero de Miñón".
- Citations
- "Los sabios que hicieron la Constitución". RTVE (in Spanish). 28 November 2008. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
- Lacasta Zabalza 1999.
- Núñez Seixas 2005, p. 128.
- Educación, ciencia y cultura en España : auge y colapso (1907-1940) : pensionados de la JAE. Sánchez Sánchez, Isidro. Ciudad Real. ISBN 978-84-939775-8-0. OCLC 829905401.CS1 maint: others (link)
- "El Dario Vasco". Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- Morán, Gregorio (2009). Adolfo Suárez: ambición y destino (in Spanish). Random House Mondadori. pp. 246–247. ISBN 978-84-8306-834-2.
- Martín Aguado, José A. (2012). Historia del Ya : sinfonía con final trágico. Vilamor, José R. Madrid: CEU Ediciones. ISBN 978-84-15382-50-8. OCLC 857077466.
- País, El (4 April 1979). "Concejales electos por Madrid". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores: "Real Decreto 1489/1978, de 23 de junio, por el que se concede la Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica a los señores que se mencionan" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado: 15420. 28 June 1978. ISSN 0212-033X.
- "(08-10-03) Herrero de Miñón, premio Sabino Arana veinte años después". www.libertaddigital.com. Libertad Digital. 8 October 2003.
- "Herrero de Miñón, Herralde y Ana Lizaran reciben la Creu de Sant Jordi". El País. 24 October 2000.
- "El Gobierno concede el Collar de la Orden del Mérito Civil a los siete "padres" de la Constitución". ABC.
- "La Universidad Pontificia Comillas nombra doctores honoris causa a los artífices de la Constitución Española – PAL SJ MADRID" (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- Bibliography
- Lacasta Zabalza, José Ignacio (1999). "Tiempos difíciles para el patriotismo constitucional español". Cuadernos Electrónicos de Filosofía del Derecho. Valencia: Universitat de València (2). ISSN 1138-9877.
- Núñez Seixas, Xosé Manoel (2005). "From National-Catholic nostalgia to constitutional patriotism: conservative Spanish nationalism since the early 1990s". In Balfour, Sebastian (ed.). The Politics of Contemporary Spain. London & New York: Routledge. pp. 121–155. ISBN 0-415-35677-6.