Santiago Casares Quiroga

Santiago Casares Quiroga (La Coruña, May 8, 1884 - Paris, February 17, 1950) was a Spanish lawyer and politician of republican ideology who would hold important posts during the Second Republic.

From an early age he was linked to republicanism and became a member of various political organizations. A personal friend of Manuel Azaña, he would form part of various cabinets chaired by him, reaching the posts of the Navy, the Interior or Public Works. During the republican period he was also a deputy in the Cortes.

In May 1936, he became president of the Council of Ministers, leading the government of the Republic in the months that preceded the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Considered an inefficient leader, his figure has been linked to the coup d'état of July 1936. About Casares Quiroga Pilar Mera Costas has written: «Although his memory has not been erased from history, the confusing fog of all the accusations made about his person and the lack of political heirs have contributed to building a dark and contradictory image in many points close to the interested and iniquitous story of the enemies of his Government».

Biography

Origins and early years

He was born in La Coruña on May 8, 1884, at number 6 Estrecha de San Andrés street. Son of Santiago Casares Paz (a native of Santiago de Compostela) and Rogelia Quiroga Moredo (considered, depending on the documentation, a native of Cambre or La Coruña), the couple had 7 children apart from Santiago, although only two more, Arturo and Ceferino, reached adulthood. His father, a Republican councilor, Freemason and atheist, would become mayor of La Coruña in 1917. From the age of five Casares Quiroga suffered from (chronic) tuberculosis.

A Coruña City Councilor since 1907, together with Segundo Moreno Barcia and José Martínez Rodríguez, he formed part of the A Coruña Republican nucleus that in turn joined forces with regionalist and neo-Carlist elements to form the so-called Galician Solidarity.

"Casaritos", as he was known as a young man, finished his law studies in Madrid, at whose Central University he received his doctorate with a thesis on Ramón de la Sagra. He had a daughter born in 1910 in Madrid, Esther Casares Quiroga, whom he recognized with his last names and would take back to La Coruña, and with whom Casares Quiroga would apparently continue to maintain contact during at least his adolescence.

Dismissed as councilor of the A Coruña town hall as a result of his participation in an anticlerical campaign in 1917, he married Gloria Pérez Corrales in 1920, with whom he had another daughter in 1922: the actress María Casares.

He was a founder in 1928 of the Galician Republican Party, of which he was also one of its leaders; Later he was the leader of the regionalist Autonomous Galician Republican Organization (ORGA), although Casares Quiroga would show little interest in promoting Galicianism.

Political activism during the soft dictatorship

He participated in the Pact of San Sebastián (1930), a platform made up of the main parties that sought to bring about the fall of the Alfonsino regime and the proclamation of the Republic, representing the Galician Republican Federation. This was a republican platform formed by the ORGA together with other Galician republican forces such as the Radical Party, the federales, the radical-socialists.

In December of that year, he was sent to Jaca as a delegate of the National Revolutionary Committee (CRN) in hiding to prevent Captain Fermín Galán Rodríguez —in charge of revolting the garrison of the Pyrenean town within the general plan— from anticipating to the date agreed by the CRN, thereby ruining the Committee's plan. Casares Quiroga arrived in Jaca on the night of December 11, but went to sleep in a hotel and did not inform Galán. With this, the uprising took place early the next day, with short-lived success. When Casares found out about the uprising, enraged, he ignored the situation.After the failure of the attempt, Casares Quiroga would be arrested by the authorities.

Incarcerated in the Modelo prison in Madrid, in March 1931 he was tried in a court martial together with other detained members of the provisional republican government; Casares Quiroga was defended by Luis Jiménez de Asúa.Like the rest of the defendants, he was sentenced to six months and one day in prison, although —by decision of the court martial— he was provisionally released on the 24th. of March.

Ministerial experiences

With the proclamation of the Second Republic, he became part of the provisional government: he was appointed Minister of the Navy in the provisional government, a position he would hold between April and October 1931. That same year, during the Constituent Cortes elections, he obtained a deputy certificate by the circumscription of La Coruña.

Retreated as Minister of the Interior in 1932

Later, he would assume the Interior portfolio during the republican-socialist biennium (1931-1933), chaired by Manuel Azaña, of whom Casares was a personal friend. He also held the Communications portfolio between December 1931 and March 1932, on an interim basis. During his time as Minister of the Interior, he had to deal with a high level of political and social conflict, which included several anarchist revolts and a failed coup d'état (August 1932) led by General José Sanjurjo. Casares Quiroga would oppose the commutation of Sanjurjo's death sentence, since in his opinion this "breaks the firmness of the Government, encourages the conspirators, and prevents us from being rigorous with extremists." In January 1933 his image The public was affected by the violence used by the public order forces during the Casas Viejas Events, which ended with several deaths. However, it would be Azaña who personally assumed the defense of government action instead of Casares.

He resigned as Minister of the Interior with the fall of the Azaña cabinet in September 1933. In the general elections of that year he managed to revalidate his deputy act, despite the fact that the ORGA —renamed the Galician Republican Party (PRG) in 1932—suffered a strong electoral setback, like other left-wing Republican forces. A year later, the PRG joined with Azaña's Alianza Republicana and the independent radical socialists of Marcelino Domingo to create a new formation: Izquierda Republicana (IR). This new party, around which left-wing republicanism revolved, would end up integrating in the Popular Front facing the elections of February 1936. In said elections Casares Quiroga renewed his act of deputy for La Coruña.

He would be appointed Minister of Public Works in a new cabinet chaired by Manuel Azaña.

Presidency of the Council of Ministers

On May 13, 1936, he assumed the presidency of the Council of Ministers, after Azaña's accession to the presidency of the Republic. Initially, the idea of the leaders of the Popular Front had been that Indalecio Prieto assume the leadership of the government, but when the time came they found the veto of Francisco Largo Caballero and the socialist faction that he led. Casares Quiroga would accept the commission of form a government "out of loyalty". The position of president would also be joined by that of Minister of War. At the beginning of his term he declared himself "belligerent against fascism", presenting his new government a bill on dangerous activities and against terrorism. He would also organize the referendum on the Statute of Autonomy of Galicia, which would be approved by popular vote on June 28.

Suffering from tuberculosis, he was unable to see the scope of the civil-military conspiracy that was underway against the Republic and he was confident of being able to control the subversive movement. Apparently, Casares Quiroga's idea was to wait for the failure of the coup attempt and then respond to it with all possible means; this strategy, in fact, had already been used successfully by the Azaña government during the unsuccessful "Sanjurjada" of 1932.

In May, the Director General of Security, José Alonso Mallol, gave Azaña and Casares Quiroga a list of 500 implicated in the conspiracy "with the recommendation that they be arrested". He did so and the conspiracy continued its course. On June 15, the civil governor of Navarra, Mariano Menor Poblador, notified Casares of a meeting of subversive soldiers chaired by Mola in the Irache monastery, but the government ordered that no action be taken. On July 16 Several members of the Anti-Fascist Republican Military Union (UMRA) visited the president to meet with him, warning him of the imminence of the uprising and requesting the dismissal of Generals Goded, Franco, Fanjul, Mola or Varela, as well as many other military suspects. (especially Africanists like Yagüe). A Moroccan nationalist group even warned the Republican government of the involvement of officers from the Army of Africa in the conspiracy. But, despite everything, Casares continued without doing anything. Quite the contrary, on one occasion he would go so far as to ensure that General Emilio Mola —the mastermind of the conspiracy— was "a general loyal to the Republic."

In that context, he is frequently credited with having uttered the following phrase: "If the military want to get up, I'm going to lie down."

When the Melilla garrison revolted on the afternoon of July 17, Casares Quiroga initially remained optimistic about events. That day, Friday, there was a meeting of the Council of Ministers. Despite the seriousness of the events, he did not inform his ministers about what had happened; It would not be until an hour had passed, while Minister Juan Lluhí was speaking, when he abruptly interrupted the meeting and informed the cabinet of what had happened in Melilla.After leaving the meeting, he went to the Ministry of War and took various measures; among others, he ordered various units of the Navy to go to the coasts of Spanish Morocco.

However, the rebellion would soon spread successfully to the rest of the Moroccan protectorate, and the next day —July 18— it would reach the peninsula itself, after the uprising in Seville —led by General Queipo de Llano—, Algeciras and Cordoba. Casares continued to act as if he was still in control of the situation. In Madrid and other capitals, the workers' organizations, especially the CNT and the UGT, petitioned the government to authorize the distribution of arms among the population to resist the coup. But Casares Quiroga flatly refused and went so far as to say: “Whoever provides weapons without my consent will be shot.” He gave orders to this effect to the civil governors. Nor was a state of war declared. Instead, the dismissal of Generals Franco, Cabanellas, Queipo de Llano and González de Lara was decreed, although the measure would be ineffective. Exhausted by the turn of events, he resigned on the night of July 18.

He was replaced by Martínez Barrio, head of a government that never took office, and by José Giral permanently.

Later Life

Statue in La Coruña located in the homonymous square.

After his resignation as President of the Government, he did not want to go into exile, despite the fact that people close to him recommended it to him because they feared for his safety. He did not hold any public office during the civil war. He focused on his Republican Left party, leading his support for the Government from the parliamentary group in the Cortes. He always worked in the background, very close to President Azaña. He lived in Madrid during the first months with his wife Gloria and his daughter María until they left for Paris, but his eldest daughter Esther, who was in Galicia when the coup took place along with her four-year-old daughter, was imprisoned. in La Coruña (when she was released, she was not allowed to leave the city because she was whose daughter she was until 1955, when she was finally able to reunite with her exiled husband in Mexico, who was able to meet her daughter, who was already twenty-three years old).

Very discredited before the Republicans, in the rebel zone the situation was no better. The civil governor of La Coruña, José María Arellano from Navarra, went so far as to order that his "hated name" be removed from all public documents. In the petition he presented to the Provincial Court, he said the following:

Being unworthy of appearing in the official register of births that is held in the municipal court instituted for humans and not by vermins, the name of Santiago Casares Quiroga, submits to his consideration the origin of giving the appropriate orders for the oprobious folio of the municipal register of this city in which its birth is registered, it becomes disappear.

After the fall of Catalonia, he went to France together with Azaña and Martínez Barrio. In the French capital he suffered an incident in the latter's office; When he appeared before the private secretary of Martínez Barrio, Professor Juan Rueda Ortiz (son of the anarchist Juan Rueda Jaime), he replied: "Well, take it on behalf of the Spanish republicans", immediately throwing a punch to Casares's face, who immediately fell to the ground. In Paris he reunited with his wife and daughter María, although he had a relapse of his tuberculosis and spent several months in a Swiss sanatorium.

In the spring of 1940, before the invasion of France by the Nazis, he fled with his wife and daughter María to England helped by the former president of the Spanish Government Juan Negrín, who found him wandering on the docks of Bordeaux and spontaneously invites him to go on a boat prepared by him; he even put him up at his London home. And this despite the fact that, according to the historian Juan Marichal, Casares was the most opposed politician, if that is possible to Negrín. The main reason for Casares Quiroga's transfer to London was to guarantee his safety, since it was evident that he would be a priority objective of the Gestapo, who would hand him over to the Francoist police. When the Second World War ended, Casares, his wife and daughter returned to Paris, but shortly after his wife Gloria died of a heart attack. stomach cancer. Her daughter María de ella had already started her career as an actress.

He died in exile in Paris in February 1950.