José Ibáñez Martín

José Ibáñez Martín (18 December 1896 in Valbona, Aragon – 21 December 1969 in Madrid) was a Spanish politician who was a long-serving member of the Cabinet of Francisco Franco: from 1939 to 1951, he served as Minister of National Education.

Between 1939 and 1967 he also founded and served as President of the Spanish National Research Council.

Biography

A supporter of Miguel Primo de Rivera, 2nd Marquis of Estella in his youth, during the Second Spanish Republic Ibáñez Martín served as a deputy for the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA). He was a member of the Catholic Association of Propagandists (ANCP), the propaganda movement founded by Ángel Herrera Oria that formed the basis for the Catholic party Popular Action. Ibáñez Martín was impressed by Leo XIII and Pius XI.

Appointed as Minister of Education in succession to Pedro Sainz Rodríguez in 1939, a post he held until 1951, Ibáñez Martín laid the foundations for the Spanish education system until the 1960s through laws such as the Spanish University Organisation Act (1943) and the Primary Education Act (1945). In general, he opposed the ideas prevailing during the first two years of the Republic, represented by the Free Institution of Education.

Ibáñez Martín was the Spanish ambassador to Portugal from 1958 to 1969.