Antonio Iturmendi Bañales (1903–1976) was a Spanish Carlist and Francoist politician. He is best known as the Minister of Justice, serving in 1951–1965, as the Cortes speaker, serving in 1965–1969; he held the parliamentarian ticket between 1949 and 1976. He is also noted as briefly a civil governor and Tarragona and Zaragoza provinces in 1939. Though not counted among key decision-makers of the Francoist regime, he is considered instrumental in thwarting the Falangist attempt to redefine the system in the mid-1950s, and in the process of implementing the Alfonsist restoration in the 1960s.
Family and youth
The Iturmendi family originated from the Navarrese town of Morentín was first noted in the mid-16th century.Iturmendi entry, [in:] Heraldry Institute service, available here It got very branched, though none of its representatives got particularly distinguished. The best-known family member was Emeterio Celedonio Iturmendi Barbarín (1812-1883), a military who became an icon of Carlist insurgency;Iturmendi Barbarín has earned a monograph, Marcelo Nuñez de Cepeda, El general Iturmendi, Pamplona 1960 he took part in all three Carlist wars (1833-8, 1849, 1873–6) and grew to general.Iturmendi Barbarin, Emeterio Celedonio entry, [in:] Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia service, available here He was also the brother of Antonio's great-grandfather.Ayuntamiento de Morentin, [in:] Morentin service, available here Either the grandfather or the father of Antonio moved to Baracaldo on the Biscay coast; the latter, José Iturmendi López (1873-1955), was educated in jurisprudence and worked as a lawyer for almost half a century.ABC 12.04.55, available here In the mid-1920s he was president of Consejo Judicial of Banco Vasco and as such was involved in negotiations over Concierto Económico, periodical financial arrangements between the provincial Biscay self-government and Madrid.ABC 27.01.26, available here In the mid-1930s he became the dean of Colegio de Abogados of the Biscay province, the position held until death.ABC 12.04.55, available here Iturmendi López married Julia Bañales Menchaca (1881-1962);Hoje Oficial de Lunes 23.04.62, available here the couple had 11 children, 7 sonsnamed José, Antonio, Pedro, Emilio, Marcelo, Jesus and Ramón, ABC 12.04.55, available here and 4 daughters.named María Victoria, María Purificación, María de los Angeles and Ana María, ABC 12.04.55, available here
Like his siblings, Antonio was raised in a profoundly Catholic ambience; he started education at the Doctrina Cristiana and Sagrados Corazones schools, where he obtained the baccalaureate.Iturmendi Bañales, Antonio entry, [in:] Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia service, available here. Iturmendi remained profoundly religious throughout all his life; at one point he advised to Conde Rodezno “Procura hacer en esta vida todo lo que te sirva para la otra”, Jesús Pavón, Semblanza del Conde de Rodezno, [in:] Principe de Viana 15/54-55 (1954), p. 190 At unspecified time though probably around the year of 1920 he entered facultad de derecho at Universidad de Deusto, the prestigious Bilbao-based high school founded by the Jesuit Order. It is at Deusto that he graduated in law;Iturmendi Bañales, Antonio entry, [in:] Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia service, available here exact date is not clear and probably fell on the mid-1920s.Eduardo Montagut Contreras, Antonio Iturmendi Bañales, [in:] El País 28.10.08, available In 1924 Iturmendi settled his affairs with the armyLa Noche 24.10.24, available here and in 1926 he was nominated abogado de estado, the state juridical service.Heraldo de Castellón 22.06.22, available here The same year he successfully passed entry exams to Instituto ReusABC 31.10.26, available here and commenced law practice in Delegación de HaciendaHeraldo de Castellón 20.01.27, available here in Castellón,Heraldo de Castellón 27.10.26, available here though already in 1927 he was transferred to Logroño.Heraldo de Casetllón 20.01.27, available here At unspecified time in the late 1920s Iturmendi returned to his native Biscay when posted to Bilbao.La Vanguardia Española 05.03.76, available here
In 1927 Iturmendi married Rita Gómez Nales (1900-1983), a Mexico-born girl from an indiano family;Antonio Iturmendi Bañales entry, [in:] Geneanet service, available here, Enrique Herreros, La Codorniz de Enrique Herreros, Madrid 2005, , p. 53 none of the sources consulted provides any information on her family except that they resided in Madrid.the marriage ceremony took place in the Madrid church of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles at calle Bravo Murillo, Herreros 2005, p. 53 The couple settled in Bilbao. Antonio and Rita had 5 children: María Teresa, María del Pilár,compare her front-page photo as “a Spanish beauty” in Semana 29.06.54, available here María de los Angeles, Antonio and Javier Iturmendi Gómez Nales. None of them became a public figure, though Maria Teresa married Alfonso Osorio García, a Francoist and later a Christian-Democrat politician, deputy prime minister in the Suarez government.La Vanguardia Española 05.03.76, available here Some of Antonio's grandchildren, especially from the Osorio Iturmendisee Lucas Osorio Iturmendi entry, [in:] Bloomberg service, available here, Alfonso Osorio Iturmendi profile, [in:] LinkedIn service, available here, María Angeles Osorio Iturmendi profile, [in:] LinkedIn service, available here and the Iturmendi Mac-Lellan families, are high corporative executives.Antonio Iturmendi MacLellan, [in:] CrestCom España service, available here One Iturmendi's brother was a locally recognized lawyerAntonio Iturmendi Bañales entry, [in:] Congreso service, available here and another was a military.Boletín Oficial del Estado 03.02.37, available here Antonio's nephew, José Iturmendi Morales, became a scholar in jurisprudence and for 20 years until 2008 served as dean of the Law Department at Universidad Complutense in Madrid, considered one of key Spanish iusnaturalists.he is considered the disciple of Francisco Elías de Tejada, Miguel Ayuso Torres, Francisco Elías de Tejada en la ciencia jurídico-política, [in:] Anales de la Fundación Francisco Elías de Tejada 3 (1997), p. 16 Antonio's niece, Juana Iturmendi Maguregui,she is daughter to Antonio’s brother José Iturmendi Bañales and Juana Maguregui y Díaz de Mendívil, José Miguel de Mayoralgo y Lodo, Movimiento Nobiliario. Año 1937, p. 137 is a Partido Popular politician and served in the Senate during the 2009–2011 term.Iturmendi Maguregui, Juana entry, [in:] Senado service, available here
Bilbao: from abogado to deputy mayor
Close to nothing is known about Iturmendi's public engagements of the late 1920s and early 1930s, except that he continued exercising as abogado del estado in Bilbao. At unspecified time he became asesor juridico for the provincial Biscay self-governmentABC 03.10.65, available here and it is likely that in this role he met Esteban Bilbao, the friend of his father and during primoderiverista period the president of the Biscay diputación; Bilbao was to become Iturmendi's lifetime political patron and Iturmendi turned his protégé and successor. In the early 1930s Iturmendi continued as a lawyer; during Dictablanda he worked with his father in the same office,Anuario del País Vasco 1930, p. 388, available here but in the Republican period he set up an office of his own.Anuario Regional 1932, p. 661, available here None of the sources consulted clearly notes him as involved in any political activity. Later works and press notes referred to Iturmendi as a Carlist and Traditionalist,see e.g. “[Iturmendi] fue originariamente tradicionalista, peró entró en FET-JONS”, Martí Marín Cobrera, Los gobernadores civiles del franquismo, [in:] Historia y Política 29 (2013), p. 276 though it is not confirmed that like Esteban Bilbao he joined Traditionalist Communion or otherwise engaged in Carlist initiatives. An apparently well-known Iturmendi was recorded as involved in Acción Popular in the Biscay countryside, though it is not clear whether the person is question was Antonio, his father or any other family member.El Nervión 20.01.36, available here
There is no data available related to Iturmendi's stand prior and shortly after the July 1936 coup. It is not known whether he was involved in the Carlist conspiracy, where he resided during the outbreak of the Civil War and what his fate was in the next few months. In August 1936 José Iturmendi showed up in Burgos and publicly declared adhesion to the military Junta, yet a corresponding press note did not mention Antonio as accompanying his father.Diario de Burgos 07.08.36, available here He reportedly accepted the Unification Decree of April 1937 and was among these Carlists who readily joined the new Francoist state party, Falange Española Tradicionalista,Ramón María Rodón Guinjoan, Invierno, primavera y otoño del carlismo (1939-1976) [PhD thesis Universitat Abat Oliba CEU], Barcelona 2015, p. 30 though the first confirmed information on his whereabouts comes from December 1937. Recommended by Esteban Bilbao, Iturmendi was nominated into a 3-member Comisión Liquidadora;Eduardo J. Alonso Olea, El crédito de la Unión Minera, [in:] Historia Contemporánea 24 (2002), p. 346 once the Nationalists scrapped all separate provincial Biscay arrangements, especially Concierto Económico, the body was entrusted with engineering their legal handover to the central administration and it completed the task within few months.El Pensamiento Alaves 13.12.37, available here
Also the next Iturmendi's assignment kept him busy in Bilbao. In August 1938 the Nationalist Ministry of Interior appointed the 3rd municipal administration, headed by José Lequerica; in a trademark Francoist move of balancing various political groupings, as a tractable Carlist Iturmendi was nominated primero teniente de alcalde, de facto the deputy mayor of the city.Iturmendi Bañales, Antonio entry, [in:] Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia service, available here He became president of the Economic and Budgetary CommissionJoseba Agirreazkuenaga, Mikel Urquijo (eds.), Bilbao desde sus alcaldes: Diccionario biográfico de los alcaldes de Bilbao y gestión municipal en la Dictadura vol. 3, Bilbao 2008, , p. 178 and entered executive boards of commercial companies controlled by the city, e.g. he joined Junta de Gobierno of Caja de Ahorros de Bilbao.Agirreazkuenaga, Urquijo 2008, p. 180 None of the sources consulted provides any detailed information on his activity in the town hall; it is neither clear when exactly he ceased. Most sources note that in January 1939 he was posted to a new job in Catalonia; however, some works list Iturmendi as member of the Bilbao administration until March 1939.Agirreazkuenaga, Urquijo 2008, p. 178. One source claims that Iturmendi was appointed a concejal in the Bilbao ayuntamiento in 1950, see the Real Academia de Historia service; this information is not confirmed elsewhere and might result from confusion; it was Antonio's brother Pedro Iturmendi Banales who served as concejal in the Bilbao ayuntamiento during few strings in course of early Francoism
Rise and demise