Carlos Arias Navarro; Last Prime Minister Under Franco

Carlos Arias Navarro, 80, the last prime minister appointed under the authoritarian rule of Gen. Francisco Franco. Franco named Arias Navarro, a conservative lawyer and former mayor of Madrid, as prime minister in December, 1973. Arias Navarro was chosen to appear on national television to announce Franco’s death on Nov. 20, 1975. He was reappointed to the post by King Juan Carlos, who immediately began dismantling Franco’s authoritarian apparatus. In July, 1976, Arias Navarro resigned and gave way to the peaceful transition to democracy carried out under the king and leading to the 1977 general elections, the first since the end of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War. Arias Navarro, who began his career as a prosecutor, was appointed mayor of the Spanish capital in 1965 and held the post until 1973, when he became interior minister. In Madrid on Monday of a heart attack.