Adolfo Suárez González was the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Spain after the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, serving as Prime Minister from 3 July 1976 to 25 February 1981. He is considered a key figure in the country's transition to democracy. His government legalized political parties, including the controversial authorization of the Communist Party, and amnesty for political prisoners, then drafted and approved the Constitution in a referendum in 1978. The Moncloa Pacts were approved during his presidency. He was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord in 1996 for his significant contribution to the country's democratic transition, as its chief architect, along with King Juan Carlos. He retired from politics in 1991, and has been out of public life since 2003; On May 31, 2005, Adolfo Suárez's son stated that his father was suffering from degenerative dementia or Alzheimer's disease and did not remember being Prime Minister of Spain and did not recognize anyone, except in response to emotional stimuli. He died on Sunday, March 23, 2014, in a Madrid clinic. Adolfo Suárez was born in 1932 in the village of Cebreros, where his mother wanted to give birth to him in the land of her ancestors and where her family had its roots, although their actual residence was in the city of Ávila. His mother was religious, while his father was a gambler and a debauchee. Suárez was not a good student, as he moved between several schools. Instead of studying, his main interests were parties, festivals, sports, playing cards, and leading neighborhood gangs. Following his mother's religious beliefs, he became involved and led activities linked to Catholic Action from a young age. He studied law at the University of Salamanca freely and graduated with great difficulty. After meeting members of the Spanish Falange movement, he began to occupy some public positions, and obtained a doctorate in law from the Complutense University of Madrid. He continued to occupy various positions within the structures of the Francoist regime until he reached the position of Director of Spanish Television between 1969 and 1973. Shortly after the assassination of Prime Minister General Carrero Blanco, Carlos Arias Navarro was appointed in his place. After the death of General Francisco Franco on November 20, 1975, and the coronation of Juan Carlos as King of Spain on November 22, the King dismissed Arias Navarro from the prime minister's office and appointed Adolfo Suárez, who was not known to the public despite his management of public radio and television. Suárez gathered around him figures from Francoism and the Spanish Falange, as well as from social democrats, liberals and Christian democrats. At the first meeting of the cabinet formed by Suárez, the king told them, “Work and work without fear.” Just two weeks after his appointment, the new government announced that the date of the elections would be decided no later than June 30, 1977. Suárez was elected leader of the Democratic Centre Union party. On June 15, 1977, the Democratic Centre Union of Adolfo Suárez, which included liberals and moderate former Francoists, won the first democratic elections in Spain. The country was experiencing a turbulent and tense atmosphere. The military did not accept any representation of the left in political life, and the left sought to abolish everything related to the monarchy and Francoism, and did not recognize the tyranny of the military. In addition, groups of the extreme right and extreme left had emerged, such as the anti-fascist Grapo movement and the Basque ETA movement. Thanks to Suárez’s shrewdness and patience, he was able and succeeded in convincing all parties to give up some of what they were demanding, calling on everyone to participate in political life, including the Socialist Party and the Communist Party. The most difficult thing for Suárez was to convince the military to allow the Spanish Communist Party to operate and to lift its ban. At the same time, he opened talks with the Communist Party under the leadership of Santiago Carrillo to ask it to recognize the monarchy, despite the party's open hostility to the monarchy. After the reunification, his popularity rose, and he won the elections for the second time in 1979. However, his victory did not end the unrest, as he faced the wrath of the military, who carried out a coup attempt on February 23, 1981, under the leadership of Antonio Tejero, who entered the Spanish Parliament armed with a group of Civil Guards, which at that moment was installing Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo as Prime Minister after Suárez left the presidency. Tejero ordered the members of Parliament to lie down on the ground, and the deputies complied with his request, with the exception of Adolfo Suárez and Santiago Carrillo, who remained seated in defiance of Tejero, who brandished his pistol inside the Parliament and began firing. An atmosphere of fear and anxiety prevailed in the Spanish street about the future of the political situation, until Juan Carlos was able to intervene personally to resolve the crisis. Then Suárez's bad luck began to prevail, and he was forced to resign and form his own party without much political success, while the Democratic Center Union was on its way to disappearing from the political scene to be replaced by the Popular Alliance. The brilliant figure of Felipe González, leader of the Socialist Party, emerged, winning the following elections in succession and ruling until 1996, thus dominating the political scene. Suárez retired from politics in 1991. Five years later, the King of Spain granted him the title of Noble of Spain and the title of Duke of Suárez. A strong verbal altercation took place at a dinner on the night of January 28, 1978, between King Hassan II and Adolfo Suárez, in the presence of King Juan Carlos and Prince Moulay Abdallah, due to what Morocco considered Suárez's ambiguity on the Sahara issue. The Moroccan delegation demanded that Suárez adopt a clear policy on the Sahara issue. Suarez then visited Morocco in June 1978. Suarez also visited Algeria and received the leader of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, on May 1, 1979. Suarez is the only president to have officially met the leader of the Polisario Front. Suarez is also considered the founder of the Spanish-Algerian axis to respond to any tension with Morocco. After suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and his wife's illness and subsequent death from cancer in 2001, and then his two daughters' illness, he withdrew from public life in 2003, and in 2004 his daughter also died of cancer. After battling pneumonia, Suarez died on the afternoon of Sunday, March 23, 2014, in a Madrid clinic at the age of 81. Spain subsequently declared three days of national mourning. King Juan Carlos, in a speech broadcast on public television after the announcement of his death, said of Adolfo Suarez, whom he described as a "statesman" and "loyal friend":