Person
Oreja Aguirre, Marcelino (1935-)Other forms
Madrid (España) 1935-02-13 - existente actualmente
Spanish politician and diplomat. He entered the Diplomatic School at the age of 23 and he was number one in his class. He held various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until he was appointed undersecretary of Information and Tourism and then of Foreign Affairs during the governments of Carlos Arias Navarro. Marcelino Oreja Aguirre was appointed royal senator in the Constituent Parliamentary term (1976‑1979). After the access of Adolfo Suárez to the Presidency of the Government, he assumed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in July 1976, a position he renewed in the successive UCD governments (Unión de Centro Democrático/Union of Democratic Centre) until his resignation on 9 September 1980. Shortly after leaving the Ministry, he was appointed general delegate of the Government in the Basque Country, position that he held until 1982. Moreover, he was elected UCD deputy for Guipúzcoa in the I parliamentary term (1979‑1982) and of PP-PDP for Álava in the II (1982-1984) term.
Oreja Aguirre re‑entered into the diplomatic corps, and in December 1983 he was named consul general of Spain in Lisbon. Shortly after, in May 1984, he acceded to the General Secretariat of the Council of Europe, and in June of 1989 he headed the candidacy of the Partido Popular (PP/People's Party) in the second elections to the European Parliament (1989‑1993). He was PP deputy for Álava in the V (1993‑1994) parliamentary term of Spain Courts. On 27 April 1994 he was appointed Commissioner of Transport and Energy and in January 1995, responsible for Institutional Relations, Culture and the Audiovisual sector.
In December 1999 he left the active policy and he was named president of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), a company of which he has been institutional president since September 2004.
Date of the event: 1977-07-13 - 1979-01-02