Adolfo Suarez

About Adolfo Suarez

The Spanish Prime Minister who guided the transition from Franco dictatorship to democracy. Suarez was chosen by King Juan Carlos to lead the political reform. He legalized the Communist Party, a deeply controversial move. Suarez oversaw the drafting of the 1978 democratic Constitution. His centrist government won the first democratic elections in 1977. Suarez resigned in 1981. During the attempted military coup in February 1981, Suarez was one of only three deputies who refused to duck when guards fired on the parliament. He died in 2014. Suarez is revered as the architect of Spanish democracy.