Jerónimo Saavedra

Jerónimo Saavedra Acevedo (3 July 1936 – 21 November 2023) was a Spanish politician and academic. He served as President of the Canary Islands twice, from 1983 to 1987, and again from 1991 to 1993.

He became the first president of the Canary Islands after the establishment of the autonomous communities system under the 1978 Constitution and was in charge of structuring the regional administration and overseeing the democratic transition in the islands. Saavedra also served as Minister of Public Administrations of Spain between 1993 and 1995 and as Minister of Education and Science of Spain between 1995 and 1996. He was a member of the Congress of Deputies in the constituent legislature until 1983, a senator twice and mayor of his hometown Las Palmas de Gran Canaria between 2007 and 2011.

Saavedra was a significant figure in Spanish LGBT history, being the first openly gay politician to hold several high public offices.

Early life and education Saavedra was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on 3 July 1936 to a middle-class Canarian bourgeois family two weeks before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. He was the son of Martín Saavedra, a fishing businessman, and Isabel Acevedo. He specialised in labour and trade union law and started working as an assistant professor.

On 21 June 1985 he resigned after a report in Parliament opposed to the Accession Treaty of Spain to the European Economic Community, referring to the Protocol II on the Canary Islands, which had been signed a few days earlier, was successful. Even so, the following 15 July, thanks to the "Progress Pact" signed by the PSC-PSOE, the Communist Party and the nationalist forces, he was again sworn in as president of the Canary Islands.

Second term: 1991–1993 In 1990, the PSC-PSOE selected him again as its candidate for the presidency of the islands in the 1991 elections. Three months later, the Canarian parliament appointed him senator. an office to which he was sworn in on 14 July 1993. On 29 July he resigned as a senator and as member of the Canarian parliament.

In the reshuffle of the González government of 1995, Saavedra was appointed Minister of Education and Science of Spain. He was sworn in on 4 July 1995 and held the office until 5 May 1997, when was succeeded by Esperanza Aguirre.

Later life

The Parliament of Canarias named him once again as senator, assuming the office on 20 July 1999 and until 22 July 2003. Saavedra ran again for the presidency of the Canary Islands in the 1999 elections, but was unsuccessful.

Personal life and death In December 2000, during the presentation of 's book Outing en España. Los españoles salen del armario (Outing in Spain. Spaniards come out of the closet), Saavedra announced publicly that he was gay. As he explained in the book's foreword, his coming out was prompted by the death of his partner Sebastián in a traffic accident that year, when he asked Sebastián's family for his name to be included in the obituary.

After coming out, Saavedra joined Miquel Iceta as one of the first openly gay politicians in the history of Spain and he became the first to hold certain high public offices: member of the Cortes Generales, minister, mayor of a provincial capital, and president of an Autonomous Community.

Saavedra died on 21 November 2023 at the age of 87 in his home of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The municipal government and the government of the Canary Islands decreed three days of official mourning. On the afternoon of 22 November, Saavedra was buried in the cemetery of the Vegueta neighbourhood, the Las Palmas district where he lived all his life.

Honors and awards Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III (1996) Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise (1998) Golden Medal of the Canary Islands (2015) Premio Especial en ARN Cultura & Business Pride (2017) Founder's Gold Medal with red badge by the Grand Lodge of Spain (2022)