Alfonso Dastis

Alfonso María Dastis Quecedo (born 5 October 1955) is a Spanish diplomat, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain from 2016 until 1 June 2018, when a vote of no-confidence against Mariano Rajoy ousted the government. Prior to becoming Minister he held several positions within the Spanish Diplomatic Corps. Until 2022, he was the Ambassador of Spain to the Republic of Italy.

Education Dastis studied law at the CEU San Pablo University in the 1970s, then attended the public Complutense University of Madrid. He embarked on a doctoral thesis on the freedom of establishment of insurance companies, but abandoned it in 1983.

Dastis attained the rank of Ambassador in 2004 being named Ambassador to the Netherlands. In 2011 Dastis was named Permanent Representative of Spain to the European Union. In 2016 Dastis was named Minister of Foreign Affairs in the second Rajoy government.

During the 2017-18 Spanish constitutional crisis, Dastis claimed in an interview with BBC News that several videos purporting to show clashes during the 1 October Catalan independence referendum were fake, and defended the actions of the Civil Guard and National Police.

In 2018, after leaving the Foreign Ministry, he was posted in Italy, as ambassador. In November that year, he was also appointed Ambassador to San Marino.

From October 2022 to September 2025, he was Ambassador of Spain to Hungary.

Dastis retired from active service in October 2025, after 42 years in the diplomatic corps.

Personal life Dastis is married to a lawyer. He is a keen golfer.