Francisco de la Torre (politician)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Francisco de la Torre
(Francisco de la Torre) 10.09.06 Macri visita al alcalde de Málaga.jpg
Mayor of Málaga
Assumed office
2000
Preceded byCelia Villalobos
Senator
In office
2011–2014
ConstituencyMálaga
Member of the Congress of Deputies
In office
1977–1982
ConstituencyMálaga
President of the Provincial Deputation of Málaga
In office
1971–1975
Personal details
Born21 December 1942 (1942-12-21) (age 79)
Málaga, Andalusia, Spain
Political partyPeople's Party (PP)

Francisco de la Torre Prados (born 21 December 1942) is a Spanish People's Party (PP) politician who has been the mayor of Málaga since 2000. He has also been president of the Provincial Deputation of Málaga (1971–1975), a member of the Congress of Deputies (1977–1982) and Senate (2011–2014).

Early life and career[]

Born in Málaga, De la Torre graduated in Sociology from the Pontifical University of Salamanca, earned a doctorate in Agronomic Engineering from the University of Madrid, and graduated in Regional Development from the University of Rennes in France.[1] In 1971, aged 28, he was appointed president of the Provincial Deputation of Málaga under the Francoist dictatorship, and was dismissed in 1975 due to his liberal views.[1]

In 1977, in the first democratic elections after the end of the dictatorship, De la Torre was elected to the Congress of Deputies for the Union of the Democratic Centre, where he remained until 1982.[1] From May 1978 to June 1979 he was Advisor for Economy and Finance in the nascent Junta of Andalusia.[1]

Mayor of Málaga[]

In 1995, De la Torre, by then an independent politician, was elected to Málaga's city council as second on the People's Party list, and joined the party the following year.[1] Mayor Celia Villalobos made him first deputy mayor, government spokesperson and Councillor responsible for City Planning, Housing, Projects, Territorial Development and Transport.[1] Villalobos left in 2000 to become Minister of Health, and De la Torre became mayor.[1]

In the 2011 general election, De la Torre returned to the Cortes Generales for the first time in 29 years as the Senate candidate in Málaga with the most votes (341,850).[2] He quit this post in June 2014 to concentrate on the upcoming mayoral elections.[3]

From left to right: De la Torre, Fleur Pellerin, Mariano Rajoy and Alain Seban at the opening of the Centre Pompidou's Málaga location in March 2015

De la Torre's party retained their majority in Málaga city hall in 2003, 2007 and 2011, but in 2015 they had to form a coalition with Citizens; this result still made him the PP mayor of the largest city; he blamed national corruption scandals for the party's decline in popularity.[4]

De la Torre suffered a stroke in April 2020. After a month in hospital, he returned to work.[5] Later in May, he marked 20 years as mayor.[6] An article in La Opinión de Málaga was mostly positive on his two decades, apart from some expensive failed projects such as the Museum of Gems,[7] and sanitation worker strikes.[6]

Honours[]

In October 2017, De la Torre was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honour on the 50th anniversary of Málaga's French community organisation.[8] In November 2018, President of Russia Vladimir Putin made him the first Spanish recipient of the Medal of Pushkin, for having opened museums of Russian art in the city.[9] After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he faced calls to return the medal and close the museum.[10]

In September 2021, he was appointed Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), for services to bilateral relations between Málaga and the UK.[11]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Francisco de la Torre Prados (Málaga)". ABC (in Spanish). 11 May 2011. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  2. ^ Romero, Antonio M. (21 November 2011). "Francisco de la Torre se convierte en el senador más votado" [Francisco de la Torre becomes the most-voted Senator]. Diario Sur (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  3. ^ "De la Torre confirma que será, de nuevo, candidato a la alcaldía y que deja el Senado" [De la Torre confirms that he will be mayoral candidate, again, and that he is leaving the Senate] (in Spanish). Cadena SER. 16 June 2014. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  4. ^ Ruiz Valdivia, Antonio (30 June 2015). "Francisco de la Torre: "La imagen de la corrupción ha hecho un daño enorme al PP"" [Francisco de la Torre: "The image of corruption has caused enormous harm to the PP"]. HuffPost (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  5. ^ "El alcalde de Málaga se reincorpora a su puesto tras recuperarse del ictus cerebral que sufrió" [The mayor of Málaga returns to his office after recovering from the stroke that he suffered]. ABC (in Spanish). 18 May 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  6. ^ a b Sau, José Antonio (10 May 2020). "De la Torre, 20 años de una continua metamorfosis" [De la Torre, 20 years of a continuous metamorphosis]. La Opinión de Málaga (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  7. ^ Marinetto, Pablo (11 February 2020). "El museo que abrió dos horas y costó más de siete millones" [The museum that was open for two hours and cost over seven million]. ABC (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  8. ^ Ruiz Fájula, Damián (12 October 2017). "50 años de la Liga Francesa en Málaga" [50 years of the French League in Málaga]. El Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  9. ^ "Sebastiá Roig y Francisco de la Torre reciben las mayores condecoraciones de manos de Putin" [Sebastiá Roig and Francisco de la Torre receive the highest decorations from the hands of Putin] (in Spanish). RTVE. 4 November 2018. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  10. ^ "Un tuit del alcalde de Málaga sobre la guerra en Ucrania suscita polémica en las redes" [A tweet by the mayor of Málaga on the war in Ukraine arouses controversy on the web] (in Spanish). Málaga Hoy. 27 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  11. ^ "Honorary Awards to Foreign Nationals in 2021". gov.uk. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
Retrieved from ""