The founding president of the Partido Popular, Manuel Fraga, has died at his home in Madrid at the age of 89 years old and his role in Spanish political life has been praised unanimously by representatives of almost all political parties.
Fraga, whose delicate health had worsened in recent days, died from heart failure. He had expressed his desire to be buried in the town of Perbes, A Coruña, where he had a home.
Both the Congress and Senate offered the use of their chapels but the family has decided that his body will remain at his home until it is transferred to Perbes.
Fraga, described as the third ‘father of the Constitution’, was the founder of the Alianza Popular, the basis of the current Partido Popular.
Between 1962 and 1969 Fraga served as Minister for Information and Tourism, playing a major role in the revitalization of Spanish tourist industry. After a brief period as Spain’s ambassador in the United Kingdom, which ended with Franco’s death in 1975, Manuel Fraga was appointed vice president and Interior Minister in 1976 under the government of Carlos Arias Navarro, the first with Juan Carlos I as head of state.
in 1989, with the AP in crisis, he refounded the People’s Alliance as the People’s Party (Partido Popular – PP) and later in the same year, José María Aznar was appointed as the party’s new president. Fraga was subsequently appointed as honorary president of the PP.
Fraga returned to his Galician homeland in 1989 and was successful in presidential election as head of the People’s Party in Galicia (PPdeG) and remained in charge for almost 15 years until the PPdeG lost its overall majority in the Galician election of 2005. In 2008 he was once again chosen for the Senate by the Galician parliament.