Profiles
José María Barreda Fontes
By h.b. - Mar 12, 2008 - 8:35 AM
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José María Barreda Fontes, the Socialist President of Castilla-La Mancha, has been in the job for a relatively short period of time compared to some of the other regional presidents in Spain, but has, nonetheless, an extensive career in politics.
Married with two children – his wife, Clementina Díez de Baldeón García, is a member of parliament in Congress - he was born in Ciudad Real on 4th February 1953.
Barreda is an experienced academic and educator with a number of books to his name, who graduated in Philosophy and Literature and also holds a Doctorate in Geography and History from Complutense University in Madrid. His teaching positions include lecturer in Contemporary History at Castilla-La Mancha University, and, in History, at the University College of Ciudad Real.
He began his life in politics as a councillor at Ciudad Real City Hall in 1983, and then went on to the regional government, where his first position, from 1983 until 1987, was Councillor for Education and Culture, during which time the regional University of Castilla-La Mancha was established. He gained his first seat in the regional parliament in 1987, as a member for Ciudad Real.
The then-President of Castilla-La Mancha, José Bono, named Barreda as Councillor for Institutional Relations in January 1988, a position which he held until May of that year when he became Vice-President of the Region.
He moved to the upper chamber of the Spanish parliament in November 1989 as designated Senator for Ciudad Real, returning to the regional parliament in 1991 as President of Las Cortes de Castilla-La Mancha for the third and fourth legislatures of the regional government. He resigned when his party chose him as PSOE’s regional General Secretary for Castilla-La Mancha in 1997, a position which he still holds today.
Barreda was called to the Vice-Presidency again in 1999, working closely with the man who was the first elected President of Castilla-La Mancha, and who had held regional presidency for the Socialist Party since 1983, José Bono. Indeed, José Bono once said of his colleague, ‘José María Barreda and I have always taken all the important decisions for the Region together.’
Bono’s more than 20 years at the head of the regional government came to an end in April 2004, when he was named Defence Minister in the newly-elected Socialist government led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and José María Barreda Fontes took over as President of the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha.
He was chosen as PSOE’s candidate for presidency in the 2007 regional election, and successfully led the party to victory in the poll which took place at the end of May that year, albeit with a slightly smaller absolute majority than his predecessor had achieved for the Socialists in the 2003 election.
He recently received a Medalla de Oro Award from the Royal Foundation of Toledo, a private cultural institution which works towards the conservation and revitalisation of the historic city centre of Toledo. This UNESCO World Heritage Site has a centuries-old history, and was once the Visigoth capital of Spain until the city fell to the Moorish invaders in 712.
The Foundation’s Honorary President, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, presented the award to José María Barreda Fontes in November 2007, in recognition of his decision to stop a plan to build a new residential area in the Vega Baja part of the city, to the west of the historic centre, when remains of an ancient Visigoth settlement were uncovered during construction. .
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