Ramón Serrano Súñer

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Ramón Serrano-Súñer (Cartagena, 12 September 1901 – Madrid, 1 September 2003), was a Spanish politician and creator of the radio station Radio Intercontinental, and served as Spain's Foreign Minister. He was also the brother in law of the Spanish dictator General Franco.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Political career 3 Involvement in World War II 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Early life

Ramón was born Ramón Serrano y Súñer in Cartagena to an engineer working in the Valencian port of Castellón de la Plana. Although he was an excellent student, his father disapproved of his aspirations of becoming a lawyer. He enrolled at the Madrid University studying Law anyway, and while he was there, studied along with José Antonio Primo de Rivera (son of Spanish dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, and founder of the Falange). He also spent a year in Bologna, during which he developed a taste for fascism.

He later moved to Zaragoza, where Primo de Rivera urged him to join his Falange, but Serrano Súñer showed no interest in joining.

Ramón Serrano Súñer and Francisco Franco were co-brothers-in-law, since the two married two sisters: Serrano Súñer married in Oviedo on 6 February 1932 Ramona (Zita) Polo y Martinez-Valdès, whom he had met shortly after moving to Zaragoza in 1931, while Franco married Carmen Polo y Martinez-Valdès. Ramón Serrano Súñer and Zita Polo had six children: Fernando, Francisco, Jaime Javier, José, María del Pilar and Ramón (b. 1946) Serrano-Súñer y Polo.^[1]

[edit] Political career

Although he had originally refused to become a member of the Falange, Súñer was already a conservative member of the Cortes (1933–36). He joined Franco early in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), during which he led the Falange. In July 1936 he was caught participating in the conspiracy to overthrow the republic and captured and locked in a Republican prison. He escaped, however, in October 1936, dressed as a woman. He was then aided by the Argentine navy in getting to France, from where he could reach Salamanca, where Franco was in office at the time. It was there that he could work with Franco to participate in the rebellious side of the Spanish Civil War. Escaping from prison amidst the cross-fire of an angry outbreak of his country's civil war, while both of his brothers were killed by the Republicans, it seems ironic that Suñer would not only manage to pull through but later live to be a centenarian.

He served as Nationalist Minister of the Interior (1937–1940), and minister of the press and propaganda (1939–40), when he founded the state news agency EFE. He was also appointed the 263rd Minister of Foreign Affairs (18 October 1939–3 September 1942), thanks to his skill at building a relationship with Benito Mussolini.

Even though he was working alongside Franco, he objected to the increasing role of the Catholic Church in Falangist politics. The two brothers-in-law had some intra-party conflicts of their own, as Serrano Súñer accused Franco of riding on a "cult of personality," while Franco viewed Serrano Suñer as increasingly becoming a thorn in the side of his party, criticizing too many of its policies.

[edit] Involvement in World War II

In 1940, Súñer, Franco and Adolf Hitler met in southern France (Hendaye) to discuss having Spain participate in World War II as part of the Axis. After playing a major role in establishing the Spanish state under Franco -- he was so influential as to be nicknamed the "Cuñadísimo", which translates as supreme brother-in-law, (a play on "Generalísimo") -- despite Serrano Súñer's advocating for Spain to join the Axis powers, Franco opted for Spain to remain a nonbeligerent during World War II. Serrano Súñer's protege Pedro Gamero del Castillo consulted in January 1941 with Hans Lazar, the press secretary of the German Embassy and told him that a Serrano Súñer government would commit to the Axis powers and thus asked for him to arrange for the Nazis to publicly back his mentor.^[2] However it is unclear whether or not Gamero was working on his own initiative and Hitler was disappointed that Serrano Súñer had not tried harder to help Germany, and called him the "gravedigger of the new Spain". To make up for this failure, he proposed the Blue Division of Spanish volunteers to fight with the Germans against the Soviet Union and communism.

In 1942, following the US entry into the war, German reverses in Russia, and the Basilica of Begoña incident, Serrano Súñer was forced to resign as foreign minister and president of the political council of the Falange. After World War II, he wrote a persuasive letter to Franco, calling for a transitional government that would have room for intellectuals in exile. When Franco received the letter, he wrote a derisive "Ho-ho." in its margin. Serrano Súñer ultimately retired from public life in 1947, but lived longer than most of the people he worked with.

[edit] See also

• Carmen Díez de Rivera, his illegitimate daughter who unknowingly tried to engage with his son (and her half-brother) Ramón Serrano Súñer y Polo and who later became a leftist politician.^[3]

[edit] References