Manuel Clavero
Minister of Culture
In office
6 April 1979 – 17 January 1980
Prime MinisterAdolfo Suárez
Preceded byPío Cabanillas Gallas
Succeeded byRicardo de la Cierva
Assistant Minister of the Regions
In office
5 July 1977 – 6 April 1979
Prime MinisterAdolfo Suárez
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byOffice disestablished
Personal details
Born
Manuel Clavero Arévalo

(1926-04-25)25 April 1926
Seville, Spain
Died14 June 2021(2021-06-14) (aged 95)
Seville, Spain
Political partyAndalusian Unity
Other political
affiliations		UCD (1978–80)
PSLA (1976–78)
Alma materUniversity of Seville

Manuel Francisco Clavero Arévalo (25 April 1926 – 14 June 2021) was a Spanish lawyer and politician who as Assistant Minister of the Regions between July 1977 and April 1979 contributed to the construction of the current State of Autonomies in Spain. He also served as Minister of Culture from April 1979 to January 1980.

Biography

Clavero was born on 25 April 1926 in Seville in a middle-class Catholic family.[1] He studied Laws at the University of Seville.[1] He then became professor of administrative law in that University and its Rector between 1971[2] and 1975.[3] Among his students were Adolfo Suárez and Felipe González, who would become Spain's first democratically elected prime ministers.[3]

Political career

On 13 December 1976 he presented in Seville the Andalusian Social Liberal Party,[4] the party he was leading that advocated for the regional autonomies, but not a federal state, at a time when the post-dictatorship territorial organization of Spain was being built.[5]

On 23 February 1977 he met with Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez to present his party's views on nationalities to him.[6]

Clavero was elected deputy in the first democratic elections of 1977, with the Suárez's UCD to which Clavero's party was integrated, representing Seville constituency.[7][8]

Assistant Minister of the Regions

In July 1977 Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez appointed Clavero Assistant Minister of the Regions,[9] appointment that he heard on the radio while playing tennis.[10]

That day, in the call he had with the Prime Minister, Clavero announced that he would immediately call Josep Tarradellas, who was the president of the Generalitat de Catalunya in exile, to return from France to lead a restored Generalitat.[11]

He was sworn in on 5 July 1977 and as assistant minister he had to develop the process of decentralization of power prior to the constitution of 1978 and the promotion of preautonomy of the various regions and nationalities of Spain.[12]

In an interview on 9 September 1977, he made it clear that the new autonomies could not acquire competencies related to the army, international relations, currency and major public works, and that in any case the new constitution would determine which competencies would be transferable.[13]

On 29 September 1977, Suárez government approved the two decrees approving the reestablishment of the Generalitat de Catalunya, decrees that Clavero read on television.[14] In that communiqué, he announced that a pre-autonomy regime would be implemented for all regions, but did not specify which regions would be included.[11]

At that time there were attempts to ensure that only the historic nationalities of Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia would have governments with full autonomy and their own parliaments, while the rest of the regions were to assume fewer ceded competencies, for example Andalusia.[11] This idea prompted Clavero to coin the well-known quote "¡café para todos!" ("coffee for all!"), a formula that allowed those underprivileged regions to assume autonomy in the same way as the historic nationalities,[15] because he did not accept that in Spain there were two different types of autonomous communities.[11]

He was in charge of drafting Article 151 of the Constitution, which is the one that designs a special way to obtain self-government for a region. He wrote it at his home together with the co-father of the Constitution, Miguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón.[16] Clavero had obstacles for this article to be added to the constitution, as Suárez was opposed and it was not well seen that Andalusia should have the same rank of self-government as Catalonia or the Basque Country, but finally it was included in its entirety.[17]

Minister of Culture and resignation

Manuel Clavero was named Minister of Culture in the first constitutional government under the leadership of Suárez and was sworn in on 6 April 1979.[18]

Under his leadership of the Ministry, in September 1979 RTVE's Bylaws were approved by which Spanish public television and radio became a more democratic system, controlled by the Congress of Deputies and, in particular, gave the Autonomous Communities the possibility of creating regional channels, since they could directly manage a state-owned television channel for the territorial scope of each Autonomous Community.[19]

In November of the same year he received in Barcelona the mortal remains of Pau Casals, who died in exile in 1973 and did not want to be buried in Spain until the return of democracy.[20]

On 15 January 1980, the national executive committee of the UCD agreed that Andalusia had to assume autonomy through Article 143 of the recently approved constitution, and not through Article 151, which would allow Andalusia to achieve more self-government, a route advocated by Manuel Clavero.[21] This, and together with his party's campaign to promote abstention on the 1980 Andalusian autonomy initiative referendum led to Clavero's resignation as minister, becoming the first minister of the democracy to do so.[22][23][24] He was replaced in the post by Ricardo de la Cierva, who was sworn into office on the following day.[25] It was then that he returned to Seville to participate in the "Yes" campaign in the referendum.[21]

On 30 April he announced that he was leaving the UCD parliamentary group, joining the mixed group, and did not run in the 1982 general election.[26][27]

Later life and death

In December 1980 he presented Andalusian Unity, an "autonomist, interclassist and non-Marxist" party,[28] but the party was dissolved on 27 November 1982 over a lack of political and economical viability.[29][30]

After leaving national politics, he returned to the university to teach and to his law practice.[11]

Manuel Clavero died on 14 June 2021 at the age of 95 in his home of Seville.[3] His funeral chapel was opened in the Parliament of Andalusia the following day.[31]

Decorations

References

  1. 1 2 "Mor l'exministre Manuel Clavero, impulsor del "cafè per a tothom"". El Nacional (in Catalan). 14 June 2021.
  2. ↑ Franco, Francisco (10 July 1971). Villar Palasí, José Luís (ed.). "DECRETO 1904/1971, de 10 de julio, por el que se nombra Rector Magnifico de la Universidad de Sevilla a don Manuel Clavero Arévalo" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish).
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Fallece Manuel Clavero Arévalo, padre de la autonomía andaluza". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 14 June 2021.
  4. ↑ "Presentación en Sevilla del Partido Social Liberal Andaluz". El País (in Spanish). 14 December 1976.
  5. ↑ "El Partido Social Liberal Andaluz, contra el Estado federal". El País (in Spanish). 25 January 1977.
  6. ↑ "El presidente, señor Suárez". El País (in Spanish). 24 February 1977.
  7. ↑ "Clavero Arévalo, Manuel Francisco". Congress of Deputies (in Spanish).
  8. ↑ "Una personalidad clave de la Andalucía moderna". Diario de Sevilla (in Spanish). 14 June 2021.
  9. ↑ R., Juan Carlos (4 July 1977). Suárez González, Adolfo (ed.). "REAL DECRETO 1563/1977, de 4 de julio, por el que se nombran Ministros del Gobierno" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Presidencia del Gobierno (159).
  10. ↑ "Manuel Clavero: "Mis ideas sobre la región las tengo muy claras"". El País (in Spanish). 5 July 1977.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Marqués Perales, J.M. (14 June 2021). "Manuel Clavero, topógrafo de la España autonómica". Diario de Sevilla (in Spanish).
  12. ↑ "Los ministros juraron de pie, en traje de calle, y con nueva fórmula". El País. 6 July 1977.
  13. ↑ "Clavero: Autonomía "a cuenta"". El País. 11 October 1977.
  14. ↑ "Clavero: "La autonomía ha de ser respetuosa con la unidad del Estado"". El País. 30 September 1977.
  15. ↑ Rodríguez, Chema (14 June 2021). "Manuel Clavero, 'café para todos' y coherencia política y vital". El Mundo.
  16. ↑ Navarro González de la Higuera, Alejandra (14 June 2021). "Manuel Clavero Arévalo: café para todos". ABC de Sevilla.
  17. ↑ Barahona, Pepe (28 October 2017). "Un cortado con Clavero Arévalo, el padre del café envenenado de las autonomías: "No ha sido un fracaso"". El Español.
  18. ↑ "El primer Gobierno constitutional: Todos de UCD, menos dos militares". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 6 April 1979.
  19. ↑ "Clavero: RTVE seguirá siendo estatal, pero con gran protagonismo de las autonomías". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 28 September 1979.
  20. ↑ "El regreso definitivo de Pau Casals". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 10 November 1979.
  21. 1 2 Aguilar, José (15 June 2021). "Manuel Clavero, andaluz antes que ministro de España". El Diario de Sevilla (in Spanish).
  22. ↑ "La autonomía andaluza enfrenta a Clavero con el resto del partido centrista". El País (in Spanish). 16 January 1980.
  23. ↑ "Manuel Clavero, ministro de las autonomías". El País (in Spanish). 17 January 1980. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  24. ↑ "Real Decreto 64/1980, de 16 de enero, por el que se dispone el cese del Ministro de Cultura don Manuel Clavero Arévalo" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado (15): 1224. 17 January 1980. ISSN 0212-033X.
  25. ↑ "No habrá más cambios en el gobierno". El País (in Spanish). 18 January 1980.
  26. ↑ "Clavero abandona el grupo parlamentario de UCD". El País (in Spanish). 30 April 1980.
  27. ↑ "Clavero Arévalo, Manuel Francisco. I Legislatura". Congress of Deputies (in Spanish).
  28. ↑ Aguilar, José (27 December 1980). "Manuel Clavero presentó Unidad Andaluza, un partido "autonomista, interclasista y no marxista"". El País (in Spanish).
  29. ↑ "Clavero propondrá el sábado la disolución de su partido, Unidad Andaluza". El País (in Spanish). 25 November 1982.
  30. ↑ "Unidad Andaluza". El País (in Spanish). 28 November 1982.
  31. ↑ "La capilla ardiente de Manuel Clavero se abrirá al público esta tarde en el Parlamento de Andalucía". El Diario de Sevilla (in Spanish). 15 June 2021.
  32. ↑ Franco, Francisco (17 July 1973). "DECRETO 1B7611973 de 17 de julio, por el que se concede la Gran Cruz de la Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio a don Manuel Clavero Arévalo" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish).
  33. ↑ Franco, Francisco (16 July 1975). "DECRETO 1682/1975, de 16 de julio, por el que se concede la Gran Cruz de la Orden del Mérito Civil a don Manuel Clavero Arévalo" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish).
  34. ↑ "Concedida la gran cruz de Carlos III al ex ministro de Cultura Manuel Clavero". El País (in Spanish). 20 January 1980.
  35. ↑ Pedrote, Isabel (24 February 1999). "Manuel Clavero, nombrado Hijo Predilecto de Andalucía". El País (in Spanish).
  36. ↑ R., Juan Carlos (29 June 2001). "Real Decreto 760/2001, de 29 de junio, por el que se concede la Gran Cruz de la Orden de San Raimundo de Peñafort a don Manuel Francisco Clavero Arévalo". Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Presidencia del Gobierno.
  37. ↑ R., Juan Carlos (19 January 2004). "Real Decreto 78/2004, de 19 de enero, por el que se concede la Medalla al Mérito en el Trabajo, en su categoría de oro, a don Manuel Clavero Arévalo". Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Presidencia del Gobierno.
  38. ↑ "La Junta reforma las medallas de Andalucía y crea una en honor a Manuel Clavero Arévalo". El Diario de Jerez (in Spanish). 2 December 2019.
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