Manuel Francisco Clavero Arévalo (25 April 1926 – 14 June 2021) was a Spanish lawyer and politician who as Assistant Minister of the Regions between July 1977 and April 1979 contributed to the construction of the current State of Autonomies in Spain. He also served as Minister of Culture from April 1979 to January 1980. Biography Clavero was born on 25 April 1926 in Seville in a middle-class Catholic family. He studied Laws at the University of Seville. He then became professor of administrative law in that University and its Rector between 1971 and 1975. Among his students were Adolfo Suárez and Felipe González, who would become Spain's first democratically elected prime ministers. Political career On 13 December 1976 he presented in Seville the Andalusian Social Liberal Party, the party he was leading that advocated for the regional autonomies, but not a federal state, at a time when the post-dictatorship territorial organization of Spain was being built. On 23 February 1977 he met with Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez to present his party's views on nationalities to him. Clavero was elected deputy in the first democratic elections of 1977, with the Suárez's UCD to which Clavero's party was integrated, representing Seville constituency. Assistant Minister of the Regions In July 1977 Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez appointed Clavero Assistant Minister of the Regions, appointment that he heard on the radio while playing tennis. That day, in the call he had with the Prime Minister, Clavero announced that he would immediately call Josep Tarradellas, who was the president of the Generalitat de Catalunya in exile, to return from France to lead a restored Generalitat. He was sworn in on 5 July 1977 and as assistant minister he had to develop the process of decentralization of power prior to the constitution of 1978 and the promotion of preautonomy of the various regions and nationalities of Spain. In an interview on 9 September 1977, he made it clear that the new autonomies could not acquire competencies related to the army, international relations, currency and major public works, and that in any case the new constitution would determine which competencies would be transferable. On 29 September 1977, Suárez government approved the two decrees approving the reestablishment of the Generalitat de Catalunya, decrees that Clavero read on television. In that communiqué, he announced that a pre-autonomy regime would be implemented for all regions, but did not specify which