Julian Besteiro (21 September 1870-27 September 1940) was the first president of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, leading the PSOE from 1925 to 1932. Besteiro was the mentor of socialist president Francisco Largo Caballero of Spain, and he would be an eminence grise of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War.
Biography[]
Julian Besteiro was born on 21 September 1870 in Madrid, Spain, and he became a member of the UGT trade union and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party socialist party. On 13 March 1918, he was made a member of the Chamber of Deputies after taking part in a major strike against the Spanish government, and he represented the PSOE in politics; he served as its president from 1925 to 1932. In 1931, he became the speaker of the Constituent Cortes, but he became more conservative in his views during the 1930s, leaving the UGT. He failed to win British support for the Republican government against the Nazi-backed Falange party, and he died in a Francoist prison in 1940.