Expatica news

Don Manuel finally steps down ending an era

16 January 2006

MADRID — Manuel Fraga, the last political survivor of General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, stepped down from Spanish politics.

The 83-year-old, one of the oldest politicians in Europe, was replaced in as leader of the opposition Popular Party in Galicia by Alberto Nunez Feijoo.

Feijoo is more a symbol of the new Spain and may be seen as a way for the Popular Party to rejuvenate itself.

He is  44, a lawyer, technocrat and single. His family is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The party branch in Galicia, beset by infighting in recent years, was seeking renewal after Fraga lost elections in June in which he was seeking a fifth straight term as president of the region.

Galicia, where Franco was born, has always been a conservative stronghold, but is now ruled by a coalition.

Fraga, who served as Franco’s information minister and in other posts and is an icon of Spanish politics, said he will take up a non-elected seat in the Spanish Senate, ceded to him by another Galician official

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news