Carlos Solchaga

Last updated

Carlos Solchaga
Carlosolchagaur22nov2011.JPG
Minister of Economy and Finance
In office
July 1985 1993

Carlos Solchaga (born 28 March 1944) is a Spanish economist, businessman and politician, who served in different capacities at various Spanish cabinets.

Contents

Early life and education

Solchaga was born in Tafalla in 1944. [1] He holds a bachelor's degree in economics and business studies which he obtained from Madrid's Complutense University in 1966. [2] [3] He received a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971. [2]

Career

Solchaga began his career at the Bank of Spain. [2] [4] He was the economic studies manager and advisor at Banco de Vizcaya from 1976 to 1979. [5] Then he served as a minister for trade of the Basque general council of Spain from 1979 to 1980. [5] He was the member of the Spanish Parliament from 1980 to 1995, representing Navarre Province, being part of the Socialist Party. [2] He was one of the party officials who developed the party's neoliberal economic program [6] and was among right-wing leaders of the party. [7]

His first ministerial post was the minister for industry and energy, [8] which he held from 1982 to 1985 in the first cabinet of Felipe Gonzalez. [5] [9] In a reshuffle of July 1985, Solchaga was appointed economy and finance minister to the cabinet again led by Prime Minister Gonzalez. [10] [11] He replaced Miguel Boyer in the post. [12] [13]

Solchaga resigned from office in July 1993 due to the scandal surrounded the activities of Mariano Rubio, the governor of the Bank of Spain. [14] The scandal is known as the Ibercorp case. [15] [16] Pedro Solbes replaced him as finance minister. [17] [18] Solchaga was named as the party's parliamentary leader in July 1993 after leaving office. [17] However, following this period he was gradually marginalized from decision-making mechanism within the party and in 1994, he left the party. [18]

Solchaga was appointed chairman of the interim committee of the International Monetary Fund in 1991. [2] His term ended in September 1993, [19] and the finance minister of Belgium, Philippe Maystadt, succeeded him as chairman of the committee. [20]

Next Solchaga began to work in private sector. He has been the international consultant of the Solchaga and Recio Asociados since 1999. He is also the chairman of the Euroamerica Foundation [21] and the vice-chairman of the Reina Sofia National Museum. [5] He is on the board of several institutions, including PRISA and Renta Corporación. [5]

Views

When they were in office both Solchaga and his predecessor Miguel Boyer implemented economic policies based the orthodox liberal ideas, and the social outcomes of these policies were largely neglected. [22] Solchaga continued Boyer's moderation and orthodox economy approach. [4] It was partly because they did not fit into the socialist mould the government projected. [23] Their priority was to reduce inflation using steps to control the money supply, which reinforced the high levels of interest and a strong currency. [23] In addition, like Boyer he objected the approach and views of Alfonso Guerra, deputy prime minister. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish Socialist Workers' Party</span> Political party

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in government longer than any other political party in modern democratic Spain: from 1982 to 1996 under Felipe González, 2004 to 2011 under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and since 2018 under Pedro Sánchez.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felipe González</span> Prime Minister of Spain from 1982 to 1996

Felipe González Márquez is a Spanish lawyer, professor, and politician, who was the Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from 1974 to 1997, and the 3rd Prime Minister of Spain since the restoration of democracy, from 1982 to 1996. He remains the longest-serving Prime Minister of Spain to be freely elected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1996 Spanish general election</span>

The 1996 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 3 March 1996, to elect the 6th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 257 seats in the Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Silayev</span> Soviet and Russian politician (1930–2023)

Ivan Stepanovich Silayev was a Soviet and Russian politician. He served as Prime Minister of the Soviet Union through the offices of chairman of the Committee on the Operational Management of the Soviet economy and chairman of the Inter-republican Economic Committee. Responsible for overseeing the economy of the Soviet Union during the late Gorbachev era, he was the last head of government of the Soviet Union, succeeding Valentin Pavlov.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercedes Cabrera</span> Spanish politician (born 1951)

Mercedes Cabrera Calvo-Sotelo, GCIH is a Spanish politician, political scientist, historian, and minister. She is also niece of Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo Bustelo, former prime minister and of former foreign minister Fernando Morán Lopez and grandniece of the physicist Blas Cabrera Felipe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José Blanco López</span> Spanish politician (born 1962)

José Blanco López, also known as Pepe Blanco, is a Spanish socialist politician. He was the deputy general of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and was the Minister of Public Works and Transport from 2009 to 2011.

Tatsuo Murayama was a Japanese politician who was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and finance minister for two times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan Alberto Belloch</span> Spanish judge and socialist politician (born 1950)

Juan Alberto Belloch is a Spanish judge and socialist politician, who served in different cabinet posts. He served as the mayor of Zaragoza between June 2003 and 13 June 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julián García Vargas</span> Spanish politician (born 1945)

Julián García Vargas is a Spanish economist and socialist politician who served in different cabinets of Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miguel Boyer</span> Spanish economist and politician (1939–2014)

Miguel Boyer was a Spanish economist and politician, who served as minister of economy, treasury and commerce from 1982 to 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fernando Morán (politician)</span> Spanish diplomat and politician (1926–2020)

Fernando Morán was a Spanish diplomat and politician who served as minister of foreign affairs from 1982 to 1985 in the first government of Felipe González. After completing his studies in Madrid, Paris and London, Morán pursued a career as a diplomat. A member of the Group of Salamanca around Enrique Tierno Galván, in 1967 he was a co-founder of the Socialist Party of the Interior, that would become the People's Socialist Party in 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José Barrionuevo</span> Spanish politician (born 1942)

José Barrionuevo is a Spanish politician. He was the minister of interior from 1982 to 1988. He was jailed from 1998 to 2001 due to his involvement in a dirty war against ETA members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claudio Aranzadi</span> Spanish engineer, businessman and politician

Claudio Aranzadi is a Spanish engineer, businessman and politician. He served as industry minister from 1988 to 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José Luis Corcuera</span> Spanish politician (born 1944)

José Luis Corcuera is a Spanish politician who served as interior minister of Spain from 1988 to 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matilde Fernández</span> Spanish politician (born 1950)

Matilde Fernández is a Spanish social feminist and politician who served as minister of social affairs of Spain from 1988 to 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruiz-Mateos Group</span> Political party in Spain

The Party of Labor and Employment–Ruiz-Mateos Group, better known as Ruiz-Mateos Group, was a Spanish political party founded by businessman José María Ruiz-Mateos following the collapse and expropriation of his Rumasa holding company. It was enrolled in the register of political parties with the Spanish Ministry of the Interior on August 30, 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariano Rubio</span> Spanish economist (1931–1999)

Mariano Rubio was a Spanish economist who served as the governor of Bank of Spain in the period 1984–1992. He involved in a scandal known as Ibercorp incident and was forced to resign from the office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Governments of Felipe González</span>

The governments of Felipe González (1982-1996) occurred during the second period of the reign of Juan Carlos I of Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">34th Federal Congress of the PSOE</span>

The 34th Federal Congress of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party was held in Madrid from 20 to 22 June 1997, to renovate the governing bodies of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and establish the party's main lines of action and strategy for the next leadership term. It saw Joaquín Almunia being elected unopposed as party secretary-general, with 74.7% of the delegate vote in the congress and 25.3% of blank ballots (231), following Felipe González's surprise announce in the congress opening that he would not be seeking re-election as party leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">33rd Federal Congress of the PSOE</span>

The 33rd Federal Congress of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party was held in Madrid from 18 to 20 March 1994, to renovate the governing bodies of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and establish the party's main lines of action and strategy for the next leadership term.

References

  1. "Carlos Solchaga". Biografias y Vidas. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Directors". Solchaga Recio. Archived from the original on 8 June 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  3. "José Luis Sampedro: Economist who became an inspiration for Spain's anti-austerity movement". The Independent . 29 May 2013. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  4. 1 2 Guillermo de la Dehesa (1994). "Spain". In John Williamson (ed.). The Political Economy of Policy Reform. Washington, DC: Peterson Institute. pp. 130, 198. ISBN   978-0-88132-195-1.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Carlos Solchaga Catalán". Bloomberg Businessweek . Retrieved 7 July 2013.[ dead link ]
  6. Omar G. Encarnación (2008). Spanish Politics: Democracy After Dictatorship. Cambridge, UK: Polity. p. 60. ISBN   978-0-7456-3992-5.
  7. Raj S. Chari (2013). "Spanish Socialists, Privatising the Right Way". In Paul Heywood (ed.). Politics and Policy in Democratic Spain: No Longer Different?. London; Portland, OR: Frank Class. p. 164. ISBN   978-1-135-23142-2.
  8. Edward Schumacher (5 July 1985). "Spain's Leader Drops Top Aides in a Big Shuffle". The New York Times . Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  9. "A new energy model for Spain" (PDF). IDEAS Foundation. 20 May 2009.
  10. "Spanish prime minister reshuffles cabinet". The News and Courier. Madrid. AP. 5 July 1985. Retrieved 7 July 2013.[ permanent dead link ]
  11. "Spain's Cabinet Reshuffle Reflects Tilt to Political Center". The Christian Science Monitor . 19 March 1991. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  12. Fernando Aguiar. "The Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), 1879-1988: from Republican to Liberal Socialism" (PDF). IESA Working Papers.
  13. "Spanish Premier 'Airs Out' Cabinet, Replaces 6". Chicago Tribune . Madrid. 5 July 1985. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  14. Paul Heywood (1 October 1995). "Sleaze in Spain". Parliamentary Affairs . Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  15. Hayley Rabanal (2011). Belén Gopegui: The Pursuit of Solidarity in Post-transition Spain. Woodbridge: Tamesis. p. 85. ISBN   978-1-85566-233-9.
  16. John Gillingham (2003). European Integration, 1950-2003: Superstate Or New Market Economy?. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 220. ISBN   978-0-521-01262-1.
  17. 1 2 "Vote for Gonzalez as PM paves the way for coalition". Financial Times . 10 July 1993. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  18. 1 2 3 Otto Holman (2012). Integrating Southern Europe: EC Expansion and the Transnationalization of Spain. London: Routledge. p. 1994. ISBN   978-1-134-80356-9.
  19. 1994 Annual Report of the Executive Board. International Monetary Fund. 1994. p. 199. ISBN   978-1-4552-8994-3.
  20. "IMF's interim committee selects new chairman". PRNews. 15 September 1993. Archived from the original on 20 November 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  21. "Spanish premier's South American tour to include Venezuela". BBC Monitoring International Reports. 19 January 2005. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  22. Richard Gillespie (1992). "Factionalism in the Spanish Socialist Party" (PDF). Working Papers Barcelona (59).
  23. 1 2 Jose Amodia (1994). "A Victory against all the Odds: The Declining Fortunes of the Spanish Socialist Party". In Richard Gillespie (ed.). Mediterranean Politics. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 173. ISBN   978-0-8386-3609-1.