President of the Republic (Spain)

"President of Spain" redirects here. Not to be confused with Prime Minister of Spain.

President of the Republic
Presidente de la República (Spanish)
Presidential Monogram
StyleHis Excellency
TypeHead of state
StatusAbolished
Term lengthSix years, renewable non-consecutively
PrecursorKing of Spain
Formation14 April 1931
First holderNiceto Alcalá-Zamora
Final holderManuel Azaña
Abolished3 March 1939
Superseded byFrancoist dictatorship
DeputyPresident of the Cortes republicanas

President of the Republic (Spanish: Presidente de la República) was the title of the head of state during the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939). The office was based on the model of the Weimar Republic, then still in power in Germany, and a compromise between the French and American presidential systems.[1] The "Republican Revolutionary Committee" set up by the Pact of San Sebastián (1930),[2] considered the "central event in the opposition to the monarchy of Alfonso XIII",[3] and headed by Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, eventually became the first provisional government of the Second Republic, with Alcalá-Zamora named President of the Republic on 11 December 1931.

Spain is one of the democracies (see President of the Government for the full list of countries) where the term "president" does not solely refer to the head of state but to several distinct offices: President of the Republic for some historical heads of state; President of the Government for the head of the executive; President of the Senate for the speaker of the upper parliamentary chamber, and so on. This has led to some confusion in countries where the term "president" refers solely to the head of state, such as the United States; several incidents involved high-profile American politicians calling the Spanish head of government "President", including George W. Bush in 2001,[4] Jeb Bush in 2003,[5] and Donald Trump in September 2017.[6] With Spain a constitutional monarchy since 1975, the monarch is head of state.

  1. ^ Payne, Stanley G. (1993) Spain's First Democracy: The Second Republic, 1931–1936, pp. 62–3. Univ of Wisconsin Press. Google Books. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  2. ^ Conversi, Daniele (2000) The Basques, the Catalans, and Spain: Alternative Routes to Nationalist Mobilisation, p. 38. University of Nevada Press. Google Books. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  3. ^ Preston, Paul (2002) Revolution and War in Spain, 1931–1939, p. 192. Routledge. Google Books. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  4. ^ "Joint Press Conference with President George W. Bush and President Jose Maria Aznar" The White House. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  5. ^ "Jeb Bush slips on Spanish history" CNN. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  6. ^ "Donald Trump's tweet on Mariano Rajoy's visit to the United States". Twitter. 26 September 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2017.