The Diplomat
The Government has awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit to Javier Senent García, president of the Spanish Red Cross between 2015 and 2023, at the proposal of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, as informed this past Tuesday by the Council of Ministers and published on Wednesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
Born in Guadalajara on November 4, 1948, Senent developed his professional activity in the company Unión Fenosa for 47 years (specifically in the Commercial and Distribution Management of the Central Zone) and began as a Red Cross volunteer in 1972, in the Relief Department of the Provincial Assembly of Guadalajara. After holding different responsibilities in this organization, including the provincial presidency of Guadalajara, vice-presidency and regional presidency in Castilla-La Mancha and vice-presidency of the Spanish Red Cross (in 2012), he was elected president of the Spanish Red Cross in 2015, during the eighth General Assembly, and renewed in the position in 2019.
Since 2015 he was representative of the Spanish Red Cross on the Governing Board of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and co-chair of the TECSOS Foundation (Social Technologies), a non-profit institution created in 2002 by the Spanish Red Cross and Vodafone Spain Foundation. In 2016 he participated in the first World Humanitarian Summit, held in Istanbul.
Javier Senent holds, among other decorations, the Silver Medal of the Spanish Red Cross, the Diploma of Honor of the Spanish Red Cross in Castilla-La Mancha, the Medal of Merit in Social Initiative of the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha and the Gold Medal for Volunteering of the Iranian Red Crescent.
During the tenth General Assembly of the Spanish Red Cross, held at the end of March, Senent announced his intention to fulfill his initial goal of remaining in office for eight years (two terms), despite having the possibility of running again, as stated in the organization’s statutes. The only candidate for the presidency, and therefore unanimously elected president, pending ratification by the Council of Ministers and subsequent publication in the Official State Gazette, is María del Mar Pageo.
“This closes an eight-year mandate of Javier Senent, in which the pandemic, migratory movements, the consequences of climate change, the volcano of La Palma and the armed conflict in Europe have caused unprecedented situations of vulnerability, with an aggravated socio-economic crisis among people who were already dragging the consequences of previous crises, especially in terms of emotional well-being, digital divide and unemployment affecting especially the young and the elderly,” the organization stated in a press release.
