Manuel Portela Valladares

Manuel Portela y Valladares (Pontevedra, 31 January 1867 – Bandol, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France 29 April 1952) was a Spanish political figure during the Second Spanish Republic. He served as the 43rd Attorney General of Spain between 1912 and 1913.

A member of the Liberal Party, he served as civil governor of Barcelona in 1910 and 1923, and as Minister of Promotion in September 1923. After the socialist revolution against the republican government in October 1934, Alejandro Lerroux named him Minister of the Interior in 1935 and named Prime Minister by Niceto Alcalá-Zamora on 14 December 1935. He formed two governments prior to the elections of 16 February 1936 where he attempted to stabilise the center ground political parties. In the end, the leftist party, Popular Front won. He went into exile at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, but eventually returned to Spain in 1937 to attend the Republican Courts plenary session held in Valencia. Then he returned to France and continued supporting the Spanish Republic in exile, but when Second World War started he was arrested by Gestapo during the occupation of France by Nazi Germany and confined by the Vichy regime near Marseille. He died in France in 1952. Provided by Wikipedia