Adolfo Suárez

Although he was born in Cebreros (Ávila), his family lived in the town and he spent his childhood and youth here.

He graduated in Law from the University of Salamanca and gained a PhD from Madrid’s Complutense University. It was in the country’s capital where he started to assume various positions in politics, supervised by the former civil governor of Ávila, Fernando Herrero. As a result of his origin, he was appointed Deputy Member of Parliament for Ávila under Franco in 1967. His definitive rise came when he was appointed Director General of RTVE in 1969, remaining in the post until 1973. From then on and in the context of the transition to democracy, he formed part of the government that was set up in 1975 after Franco’s death.

Suárez represented a moderate option that looked for reconciliation at times of great uncertainty and he successfully mediated between various groups of influence (politicians, the Church and the Armed Forces, etc.), achieving the balance the country needed in view of a situation that differed radically from previous events. His work and his image were important for voters and, in the first democratic elections, he was elected President of the Government with the UCD party in 1977. He was re-elected in the following elections and received much support from the people until he resigned in 1981.

For one decade he remained in politics in a renewed party, the CDS. He abandoned politics in 1991. He has lived in retirement from public life for many years.

Adolfo Suárez was always known as a prudent man who looked for reconciliation, qualities he was said to have thanks to the fact that he was Castilian and from Ávila.

Undoubtedly, he also looked for the same way of seeing life in other people during his political career. His closest circle of collaborators and friends included several other people from Ávila, such as Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún (1932-1991), who was minister in various governments and Mayor of Madrid in the 1980s, and his secretary Aurelio Sánchez Tadeo who was also the town’s Official Chronicler.