José Bono

José Bono Martínez (born 14 December 1950) is a politician of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He served as President of the Congress of Deputies during the 9th Legislature. Before that, he was the Minister of Defence of Spain from 18 April 2004 in the Government chaired by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. He left his ministerial post on 7 April 2006 and was replaced by former Minister of Interior, José Antonio Alonso. Bono had previously served as President of the Autonomous Community of Castile-La Mancha from 6 June 1983 to 17 April 2004. In 2020, he was granted Dominican Republic citizenship by means of a presidential decree.

Minister of Defence

During his cabinet spell, José Bono was involved in various events receiving widespread news coverage in Spain. Some of them related to his role as Minister of Defence (e.g. the controversy created by the public declarations of Lt. General about the 1978 Spanish Constitution, defending the possibility of an intervention of the armed forces to maintain the territorial integrity of Spain), and others connected to his membership of the Socialist Workers' Party, the most significant of them being the detention of two members of the Popular Party (PP) who were participating with him in a popular demonstration, after they had allegedly attempted to assault him. He was elected President of the Congress of Deputies on 1 April 2008.