Manuel Gimenez Fernandez

Manuel Gimenez Fernandez was a Spanish academic and politician born in Seville in 1896 and dying there in 1968. A professor of canon law at the University of Seville, he served as Minister of Agriculture from October 1934 to April 1935 under Prime Minister Alejandro Lerroux, championing agrarian reform measures including the Law of Ploughmen and legislation extending purchasing rights to tenant farmers. These moderate reforms drew fierce opposition from conservative factions within his own CEDA party and forced his resignation. He represented Badajoz and later Segovia in the Congress of Deputies and narrowly escaped death at the hands of Falangist forces during the Spanish Civil War.