Alfredo Sánchez Monteseirín, the mayor who led the greatest transformation of Seville after the Expo, dies at the age of 69

Alfredo Sánchez Monteseirín, mayor of Seville for 12 years, died this Monday as a result of the stroke he suffered years ago and which forced him to retire from active politics. His health had been progressively deteriorating since that cardiovascular episode until his death, which occurred at the age of 69.

Sánchez Monteseirín became interested in politics in his youth based on his experience in grassroots Christian groups like so many other socialists of his generation. He was born in La Rinconada (Seville) on September 25, 1957 and during a long career he has been president of the Provincial Council, mayor of Seville and special delegate of the State for the Free Trade Zone of Seville. Graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Seville, he was also a councilor of the town of Burguillos between 1979 and 1987, and president of the Andalusian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FAMP).

Without a doubt, his time as mayor was the one that gave him the greatest projection during three terms in which he governed with successes and errors, but in which without a doubt the greatest transformation of Seville took place after the Expo of '92.

In that sense, he was a politician determined to leave his mark on the city and put the project above his own popularity, since many of the actions that were carried out during the period in which he governed Seville were involved in very high-profile controversies: from the pedestrianization of the center to the construction of one of the most extensive bike lane networks in Spain at that time, the Cartuja skyscraper or the Setas de la Encarnación.

Some cases of corruption also surfaced during those mandates that ended up undermining his public image, such as the case of the false invoices in the Macarena district, but no one can deny him a notable urban planning and political legacy with a personal stamp.

He became the most powerful PSOE mayor in Spain, but the party was not particularly generous in his withdrawal. In fact, he was not even allowed to be the one to announce that he would not repeat as a candidate. It was the then president of the Board, José Antonio Griñán, who announced it in an interview in a news agency. And although he appeared many times in the pools as a minister, after leaving the Mayor's Office his destiny was a position at the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid. Later they would appoint him a special delegation of the Free Zone of the Port of Seville.

One of his last public appearances dates back to January 2025, on the occasion of the presentation of a portrait painting of him as president of the Provincial Council, between 1995 and 1999 under the acronym of the PSOE, in an event that took place in the House of the Province and in which he was accompanied by the former provincial president Miguel Ángel Pino and the current president of the institution and provincial secretary of the Sevillian socialists, Javier Fernández.