José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones

José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones de León (Salamanca, 27 November 1898 – Madrid, 13 September 1980) was a Spanish politician, leader of the CEDA, Spain's first mass and modern right-wing party, and a prominent figure in the period leading up to the Spanish Civil War. Under his leadership at the age of 34, CEDA became the largest political party in the second republican Cortes (1933–1935) with just over one quarter of the seats.

Continually denied the invitation to form government, he served as Minister of War from May to December 1935, where he promoted Generals Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco to influential positions. In the 1936 elections, the CEDA was defeated, and support for Gil-Robles and his party evaporated. Gil-Robles was unwilling to struggle with Francisco Franco for power and in April 1937, he announced the dissolution of CEDA, and went into exile during the years 1936-1953 and again from 1962-1964. Abroad, he negotiated with Spanish monarchists to try to arrive at a common strategy for taking power in Spain.

After returning to Spain, in 1964, he was named a professor of the University of Oviedo and published his memoir No fue posible la paz ('Peace Was Not Possible') with a thesis that despite his efforts to operate within the constitutional framework of the Republic, structural and ideological extremism on both the left and right made a peaceful, democratic resolution impossible.

After the death of Franco and the end of his regime, Gil-Robles became one of the leaders of the "Spanish Christian Democracy" party, which however failed to win support in the Spanish general elections in 1977.