Lerroux, Alejandro

▪ prime minister of Spain

born March 4, 1864, Córdoba, Spain

died June 27, 1949, Madrid

      leader of the Spanish Radical Party who headed four governments during the period of centre-right rule (1933–35) in the Second Republic (1931–39).

      The son of a sergeant major, Lerroux practiced as a lawyer and worked as a journalist in Barcelona before becoming leader of the Radical Party. In 1901 he was elected to the Spanish Parliament, and in the 1903 elections his party defeated the Catalan nationalists. His republican views led to his exile in 1907, when he fled to Argentina. After his young followers were in 1909 accused of burning convents in Barcelona, he became less extreme, and the Radicals became representative of moderate middle-class liberalism.

      Lerroux welcomed the inauguration of the Second Republic in 1931 and became its first foreign minister. The general elections of November 1933 inaugurated a period of centre-right government in which he, aided by the right, played a major part. His first government (November 1933–April 1934), though composed entirely of Radicals, depended upon rightist support. Lerroux believed the republic had moved too far to the left and sought to reconcile conservatives, but, in doing so, he angered leftist groups. In October 1934 a major left-wing uprising was suppressed with great severity. Throughout 1935 Lerroux cooperated with José Maria Gil Robles, the parliamentary leader of the right, and headed several coalition cabinets that were largely ineffective.

      Lerroux failed to recover politically from the “Straperlo” scandal in late 1935, in which several of his relatives and Radical Party associates were charged with corruption involving gambling concessions. In the elections of February 1936 he lost his seat in parliament in the midst of a Radical electoral debacle. He went to Portugal during the civil war (1936–39) and did not return to Spain until 1947.

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