González Márquez, Felipe (1942– )

Spanish socialist politician, leader of the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), and prime minister 1982–96. His party was re-elected in 1989 and 1993, but his popularity suffered as a result of economic upheaval and revelations of corruption within his administration. During 1995 he was himself briefly under investigation for alleged involvement with anti-terrorist death squads in the 1980s, and in March 1996, he and his party were narrowly defeated in the general elections.

After studying law in Spain and Belgium, in 1966 he opened the first labour-law office in his home city of Seville. In 1964 he joined the PSOE, and he rose rapidly to the position of leader. In 1982 the PSOE won a sweeping electoral victory and González became prime minister. Under his administration left-wing members of the PSOE, disenchanted with González's policies, formed a new party called Social Democracy in 1990. After his party's failure to retain an absolute majority in the 1989 parliamentary elections, González formed a coalition with Catalan and Basque nationalist parties, promising increased devolution to the country's regions.

The PSOE suffered, during the early 1990s, from a series of corruption scandals, and in 1995 González was accused of having been personally involved in the setting up of the Anti-terrorist Liberation Group, a paramilitary group that had been responsible for the deaths of scores of Basque separatists in the 1980s. A preliminary probe into the allegations was abandoned as a result of insufficient evidence, but the scandal cost him the support of his Catalan coalition partner.