Gaspar Llamazares
Encyclopedia
Gaspar Llamazares Trigo (ɡasˈpar ʎamaˈθaɾes ˈtɾiɣo; born 28 November 1957) is a Spanish politician. He was the leader of the leftist coalition Izquierda Unida
(IU, United Left) from 2001 to 2008, in the post of General Coordinator. He is a member of Communist Party of Spain (PCE).
, La Rioja, Spain
. Second of six brothers and sisters, he spent his childhood and youth in Salinas, Castrillón
, Asturias
. He studied medicine
in the Autonomous University of Madrid
and in the University of Oviedo
, where he received his degree. There he founded "Bocetos" ("sketches"), a medical publication attempting to focus especially on the social issues of medicine, unlike the biological paradigms then dominating in medicine. He then completed his studies with a Masters in Public Health in the University of Havana, in Cuba
. In 1985, back in Spain, he started teaching in the University of Santiago de Compostela and then in the Unidad Docente de Medicina de Familia in Cazoña (Cantabria
).
until 1995.
Llamazares was the General Secretary of the PCE in the autonomous community of Asturias
and member of Asturias' Parliament between 1988 and 2000.
in the Spanish Congress for the constituency of Asturias
in the 2000 General Elections. Following the poor results obtained by IU in that elections (20 deputies in 1996
and 8 in 2000), Llamazares announced his intentions to run for the post of General Coordinator in the Coalition's sixth Federal Assembly due to be held December that year. During the Assembly the post was contested by Francisco Frutos
Secretary General of the Communist Party of Spain and Angeles Maestro who was supported by the most radical factions of IU along with Llamazares, who was supported by the then General Coordinator Julio Anguita
. In the Election for the Political Committee the list backing Llamazares obtained 32 seats whilst the list backing Frutos obtained 30 seats and the list backing maestro obtained 13 seats. In the following General Coordinator election Maestro's supporters abstained, allowing Llamazares to be elected as General Coordinator. Being the General Coordinator Llamazares was also designated as IU's parliamentary leader.
Llamazares was reelected General Coordinator in the seventh Federal Assembly of IU held in December 2003 being opposed by Luis Carlos Rejon then Deputy for Cordoba who was backed by several regional minorities along with the new left
ist faction "Espacio Alternativo" and Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo Mayor of Marinaleda, Seville
who was supported by the more radical factions of IU (mainly Corriente Roja and CUT
). Llamazares obtained a clear majority and was appointed Prime Ministerial candidate.
In the 2004 general election
, Llamazares was elected Deputy for Madrid
(as it is tradition for the Prime Ministerial Candidates of the national parties to be candidates for Madrid) but IU obtained its worst result ever with only 3 seats in Congress (5 in coalition with Initiative for Catalonia Greens
). This led to a large number of IU members blaming the results on Llamazares. In the 2004 European Parliament election
IU won only 1 Member of the European Parliament
from the previous 4 in 1999
(IU was in a joint list with Initiative For Catalonia that won 2 MEPs - one for each - that joined separate groups in the European Parliament). That led to Llamazares to call for an Extraordinary Assembly.
In the eighth (Extraordinary) Assembly of IU, Llamazares, who was backed by the more centrist Factions of IU as well as the Green-left factions and the more nationalist leaning factions, was opposed by Enrique Santiago, a human rights
lawyer initially supported by the young cadres, and later Communist Party of Spain leadership, and Sebastian Martin Recio, Mayor of Carmona, Seville supported by the Andalusian minority as well as "Espacio Alternativo". (Previously Santiago and Martin Recio reached an agreement to vote in the most supported of both in the political council. Llamazares won 54 seats, while Santiago won 42 and Martin Recio 14. The sum of Santiago and Martin Recio lists gave the first 56 votes. But a last hour amendment introduced during the assembly to the IU by-laws, giving the General Coordinators of the Federations the right to vote for the General Coordinator threw a result of 67 for Llamazares, 51 against and 8 abstentions, allowing Llamzares to be reelected as Coordinator General.
In May 2007 prior to the Municipal Elections Llamazares Became the first national Political Leader to campaign through Second Life
. During the electoral campaign Llamazares announced he will not rerun as candidate for General Coordinator of IU in the following Assembly, supposedly scheduled for Autumn that year. In July 2007 Llamazares announced he will intend to run once more as candidate for prime minister, decision that caused several controversies inside the organization, specially amongst the Communist Party of Spain, and other sectors considered to be on the left of IU, along with that it was announced that the upcoming general assembly will be postponed to after the General Election
scheduled for March 2008. On October Maraga Sanz a member of the Communist Party of Spain's Standing Committee and its General Secretary in the Valencian Community
announced her intention to run against Llamazares for IU's nomination to prime ministership, Primary elections were held in the last weeks of October and the beginning of November 2007 with Llamazares victorious.
In March 2008, in the immediate aftermath of IU's worst ever General Election results, Llamazares announced his intention not to seek re-election to the leadership of leadership of IU, Finally resigning on 25 October 2008 three weeks before the 9th Federal Assembly of IU that will elect his successor.
In 2009, he sought to publicly condemn Pope Benedict XVI for having argued that condoms may in fact do more harm than good in the fight against AIDS.
On January 15, 2010, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
published digitally aged pictures of Osama bin Laden
and Atiyah Abd Al-Rahman
on its website which they claimed were produced using cutting edge technology. Spanish newspaper El Mundo
revealed that a picture of Llamazares was taken from Google Images and his hair and facial stubble was used to create the image. The FBI has admitted to this and removed the image. An internal investigation has been launched by the FBI to find out if this was done intentionally.
United Left (Spain)
The United Left is a political coalition that was organized in 1986 bringing together several political organisations opposed to Spain joining NATO. It was formed by a number of groups of leftists, greens, left-wing socialists and republicans, but was dominated by the Communist Party of Spain...
(IU, United Left) from 2001 to 2008, in the post of General Coordinator. He is a member of Communist Party of Spain (PCE).
Early years and career
Llamazares was born in LogroñoLogroño
Logroño is a city in northern Spain, on the Ebro River. It is the capital of the autonomous community of La Rioja, formerly known as La Rioja Province.The population of Logroño in 2008 was 153,736 and a metropolitan population of nearly 197,000 inhabitants...
, La Rioja, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Second of six brothers and sisters, he spent his childhood and youth in Salinas, Castrillón
Castrillón
Castrillón is a concejo in Asturias, located on the central coast. It has an area of 56.70 km² and a population of 22,361 inhabitants . The most important population centres are the capital Piedras Blancas, Salinas, and Raíces....
, Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
. He studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
in the Autonomous University of Madrid
Autonomous University of Madrid
The Autonomous University of Madrid is one of the top university of Spain and commonly known by its Spanish initials UAM or as "la Autónoma"...
and in the University of Oviedo
University of Oviedo
The University of Oviedo is a public university in Asturias . It's the only university in the region. It has three campus and research centres, located in Oviedo, Gijón and Mieres.-History:...
, where he received his degree. There he founded "Bocetos" ("sketches"), a medical publication attempting to focus especially on the social issues of medicine, unlike the biological paradigms then dominating in medicine. He then completed his studies with a Masters in Public Health in the University of Havana, in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. In 1985, back in Spain, he started teaching in the University of Santiago de Compostela and then in the Unidad Docente de Medicina de Familia in Cazoña (Cantabria
Cantabria
Cantabria is a Spanish historical region and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community , on the south by Castile and León , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.Cantabria...
).
Early political career
He joined the Communist Party in 1981. In 1988 he was elected Secretary General and General Coordinator of Izquierda Unida in Asturias. In 1991 he was elected deputy to the regional parliament of Asturias, where he was spokesman for Izquierda Unida's group. In this chamber, IU worked with governments of the Spanish Socialist Workers' PartySpanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...
until 1995.
Llamazares was the General Secretary of the PCE in the autonomous community of Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
and member of Asturias' Parliament between 1988 and 2000.
Later political career
Llamazares was elected deputyChamber of Deputies
Chamber of deputies is the name given to a legislative body such as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or can refer to a unicameral legislature.-Description:...
in the Spanish Congress for the constituency of Asturias
Asturias (Spanish Congress Electoral District)
Asturias is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. The total electorate in April 2008 was 982,230 and the largest municipalities were Gijón with 232,000, Oviedo with 179,000 and Avilés with...
in the 2000 General Elections. Following the poor results obtained by IU in that elections (20 deputies in 1996
Spanish general election, 1996
General elections were held in Spain on March 3, 1996. The Prime Minister Felipe González of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party lost the elections to Partido Popular and their leader José María Aznar....
and 8 in 2000), Llamazares announced his intentions to run for the post of General Coordinator in the Coalition's sixth Federal Assembly due to be held December that year. During the Assembly the post was contested by Francisco Frutos
Francisco Frutos
Francisco Frutos Gras is a Spanish politician who was since 1998 until 2009, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain ....
Secretary General of the Communist Party of Spain and Angeles Maestro who was supported by the most radical factions of IU along with Llamazares, who was supported by the then General Coordinator Julio Anguita
Julio Anguita
Julio Anguita González is a Spanish communist politician. He was Mayor of Córdoba, Spain from 1979 to 1986 and coordinator of United Left between 1989 and 1999 and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain from 1988 to 1998.-Biography:A member of a military family, he broke with familiar...
. In the Election for the Political Committee the list backing Llamazares obtained 32 seats whilst the list backing Frutos obtained 30 seats and the list backing maestro obtained 13 seats. In the following General Coordinator election Maestro's supporters abstained, allowing Llamazares to be elected as General Coordinator. Being the General Coordinator Llamazares was also designated as IU's parliamentary leader.
Llamazares was reelected General Coordinator in the seventh Federal Assembly of IU held in December 2003 being opposed by Luis Carlos Rejon then Deputy for Cordoba who was backed by several regional minorities along with the new left
New Left
The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...
ist faction "Espacio Alternativo" and Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo Mayor of Marinaleda, Seville
Seville (province)
Seville is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the provinces of Málaga, Cádiz, Huelva, Badajoz, and Córdoba.Its area is 14,042 km²...
who was supported by the more radical factions of IU (mainly Corriente Roja and CUT
Cut
Cut may refer to:* The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely directed force-Mathematics:* Cut * Branch cut, a concept in complex analysis* Dedekind cut, a partition of rational numbers* Cut-elimination theorem...
). Llamazares obtained a clear majority and was appointed Prime Ministerial candidate.
In the 2004 general election
Spanish legislative election, 2004
Legislative elections were held in Spain on 14 March 2004. At stake were all 350 seats in the lower house of the Cortes Generales, the Congress of Deputies, and 208 seats in upper house, the Senate. The governing People's Party was led into the campaign by Mariano Rajoy, successor to outgoing...
, Llamazares was elected Deputy for Madrid
Madrid (Spanish Congress Electoral District)
Madrid is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It has the largest electorate of all the 52 districts. Madrid is the largest city...
(as it is tradition for the Prime Ministerial Candidates of the national parties to be candidates for Madrid) but IU obtained its worst result ever with only 3 seats in Congress (5 in coalition with Initiative for Catalonia Greens
Initiative for Catalonia Greens
Initiative for Catalonia Greens is a political party in Catalonia, Spain. It was formed as a merger of Iniciativa per Catalunya and Els Verds. IC had been an alliance led by Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya and was the equivalent of Izquierda Unida in Catalonia...
). This led to a large number of IU members blaming the results on Llamazares. In the 2004 European Parliament election
European Parliament election, 2004 (Spain)
The European Parliament election of 2004 in Spain was the election of Members of the European Parliament representing Spain constituency for the 2004-2009 term of the European Parliament. It was part of the wider 2004 European election...
IU won only 1 Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
from the previous 4 in 1999
European Parliament election, 1999 (Spain)
The European Parliament election of 1999 in Spain was the election of the delegation from Spain to the European Parliament in 1999.-References:...
(IU was in a joint list with Initiative For Catalonia that won 2 MEPs - one for each - that joined separate groups in the European Parliament). That led to Llamazares to call for an Extraordinary Assembly.
In the eighth (Extraordinary) Assembly of IU, Llamazares, who was backed by the more centrist Factions of IU as well as the Green-left factions and the more nationalist leaning factions, was opposed by Enrique Santiago, a human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
lawyer initially supported by the young cadres, and later Communist Party of Spain leadership, and Sebastian Martin Recio, Mayor of Carmona, Seville supported by the Andalusian minority as well as "Espacio Alternativo". (Previously Santiago and Martin Recio reached an agreement to vote in the most supported of both in the political council. Llamazares won 54 seats, while Santiago won 42 and Martin Recio 14. The sum of Santiago and Martin Recio lists gave the first 56 votes. But a last hour amendment introduced during the assembly to the IU by-laws, giving the General Coordinators of the Federations the right to vote for the General Coordinator threw a result of 67 for Llamazares, 51 against and 8 abstentions, allowing Llamzares to be reelected as Coordinator General.
In May 2007 prior to the Municipal Elections Llamazares Became the first national Political Leader to campaign through Second Life
Second Life
Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...
. During the electoral campaign Llamazares announced he will not rerun as candidate for General Coordinator of IU in the following Assembly, supposedly scheduled for Autumn that year. In July 2007 Llamazares announced he will intend to run once more as candidate for prime minister, decision that caused several controversies inside the organization, specially amongst the Communist Party of Spain, and other sectors considered to be on the left of IU, along with that it was announced that the upcoming general assembly will be postponed to after the General Election
Spanish general election, 2008
Legislative elections for the Spanish Cortes Generales were held on March 9, 2008. The elections were for 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies, and the 208 directly elected seats in the upper house, the Senate, determining the Prime Minister of Spain...
scheduled for March 2008. On October Maraga Sanz a member of the Communist Party of Spain's Standing Committee and its General Secretary in the Valencian Community
Valencian Community
The Valencian Community is an autonomous community of Spain located in central and south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Valencia...
announced her intention to run against Llamazares for IU's nomination to prime ministership, Primary elections were held in the last weeks of October and the beginning of November 2007 with Llamazares victorious.
In March 2008, in the immediate aftermath of IU's worst ever General Election results, Llamazares announced his intention not to seek re-election to the leadership of leadership of IU, Finally resigning on 25 October 2008 three weeks before the 9th Federal Assembly of IU that will elect his successor.
In 2009, he sought to publicly condemn Pope Benedict XVI for having argued that condoms may in fact do more harm than good in the fight against AIDS.
On January 15, 2010, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
published digitally aged pictures of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and Atiyah Abd Al-Rahman
Atiyah Abd al-Rahman
Atiyah Abd Al Rahman was reported by the US State Department to be a senior member of al-Qaeda and a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and Ansar al-Sunna...
on its website which they claimed were produced using cutting edge technology. Spanish newspaper El Mundo
El Mundo (Spain)
El Mundo is the second largest printed and the largest digital daily newspaper in Spain and one of the newspapers of record in that country, with a daily circulation topping 300,000 readers for the printed edition and 24 million unique web visitors per month for the...
revealed that a picture of Llamazares was taken from Google Images and his hair and facial stubble was used to create the image. The FBI has admitted to this and removed the image. An internal investigation has been launched by the FBI to find out if this was done intentionally.