Felipe González

Who is Felipe González?

Felipe González Márquez is a Spanish social-democratic politician. He was the General Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party from 1974 to 1997. To date, he remains the longest-serving Prime Minister of Spain, after having served four successive mandates from 1982 to 1996. His ascension is generally seen as the last step in the path to Spain's re-instatement of democracy which commenced with the death of Francisco Franco in 1975. After losing power to Partido Popular's José María Aznar in 1996, he briefly continued to lead the PSOE but was ousted following a controversy regarding illegal actions his government had taken in the struggle against ETA.