Francisco Sanz Fernández (Valencia, Spain, 1952) is a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 politician for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...

 (PSOE).

Married, with two children, Sanz gained a Doctorate in Engineering. He joined the PSOE in 1976 and in 1977 stood in the first democratic elections as a candidate for the Spanish Congress of Deputies in Valencia Province

Valencia (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Valencia is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies—the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It is the third largest district in Congress in terms of the numbers of deputies elected, as it elects sixteen deputies out of the total...

 but was unsuccessful at the first attempt. Between 1978 and 1979 he worked in the pre-autonomous government of the Valencian Community which supervised the region in preparation for the granting of full devolution of powers.

In 1979

Spanish general election, 1979

General elections were held in Spain on 1 March 1979.-References:* *...

 he was elected to the Spanish Congress representing Valencia Province and was re-elected in 1982

Spanish general election, 1982

General elections were held in Spain on 28 October 1982.PSOE and PSC presented two different lists of candidates: with the PSOE contesting most of Spain and the PSC only standing in Catalonia...

 and 1986

Spanish general election, 1986

General elections were held in Spain on 23 June 1986. In this election, the Communist Party of Spain merged with other minor left parties to form the coalition Izquierda Unida; in Catalonia they ran as the Catalan Left Union. Similarly, the People's Alliance merged with two other conservative...

. However on the latter occasion he resigned one year later after being elected to the European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

 in the 1987 elections

European Parliament election, 1987 (Spain)

The European Parliament election of 1987 in Spain took place on 10 June 1987. It was the election of all 60 MEPs representing the Spain constituency for the remainder of the 1984-1989 term of the European Parliament...

. He remained an MEP

Member of the European Parliament

A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...

 until 1999. Subsequently he has represented the PSOE in various roles in the Valencian Community and from 2004 to 2005 was Rector of the University of Valencia.