José Antonio Girón

Who was José Antonio Girón?

José Antonio Girón de Velasco was a prominent Spanish Falangist politician. He was minister of Labor, counselor of the Kingdom's Council and member of the Cortes Generales. He was one of the most heard voices against any kind of changes during the last years of Francoism, taking part in the political group known as "the Bunker", for their reluctance to the transition to democracy after Franco's death.

He began his political activities during his university studies in Valladolid. In 1931 he joined Juventudes Castellanas de Acción Hispánica, a small political group founded in Valladolid by Onésimo Redondo, that would merge with Ramiro Ledesma's Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista and José Antonio Primo de Rivera's Falange Española. He fought in the Civil War on the Nationalist side and commanded units of Falangist militias. After the war, he was appointed national delegate of Veterans and in 1941 minister of Labor, when he was only 30. He deployed an intense activity, like the labor institutes for training workers and the development of the social security system.