Pablo Casado

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In this
Spanish name, the first or paternal surname
is Casado and the second or maternal family name is Blanco.
Carlos Floriano
Succeeded byMarta González
Member of the Congress of Deputies
In office
13 December 2011 – 4 April 2022
ConstituencyÁvila (2011–2019)
Madrid (2019–2022)
Member of the Assembly of Madrid
In office
13 June 2007 – 9 July 2009
Personal details
Born
Pablo Casado Blanco

(1981-02-01) 1 February 1981 (age 43)
Palencia, Castile and León, Spain
Political partyPeople's Party
Spouse
Isabel Torres Orts
​
(m. 2009)​
Children2
EducationDouai School[1]
ICADE
CES Cardenal Cisneros
King Juan Carlos University

Pablo Casado Blanco (Spanish pronunciation:

Congress of Deputies representing Madrid until 4 April 2022,[2] having previously represented Ávila between 2011 and 2019.[3] From 2015 to 2018, he also served as vice secretary general of communication of the People's Party (PP).[4] From July 2018 until April 2022, he was the president of the PP.[5][6]

Biography

Early life and education

Casado was born on 1 February 1981 in Palencia. His father, Miguel Casado González,[7] was a doctor and his mother, Esther Blanco Ruiz,[7] a nursing university professor. His family owns an ophthalmologic clinic in his native city.[8] He studied at the Colegio Castilla, managed by the Marist Brothers, and took the 8th year of the General Basic Education (EGB) at Douai School[1] in the United Kingdom.[9] He has five brothers.

He started his university studies in law at the

Universidad Pontificia Comillas) in 1999, but he switched to another centre in 2004,[10][n 1] enrolling in the CES Cardenal Cisneros, a privately managed centre owned by a foundation of the Community of Madrid and attached (for the purpose of the issuance of the degree) to the public Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).[10] He ultimately obtained his degree in law in the CES Cardenal Cisneros in September 2007 after having reportedly passed half of the credits of the 5-year licenciature in four months of that year.[10] The centre issued a statement where they denied accusations of impropriety or preferential treatment regarding the student Casado.[15]

He also has a BA in Business Administration and Management and an MA in Administrative Law from the King Juan Carlos University (URJC).[16] The latter degree is a source of significant controversy, as Casado was found to have obtained it from the now controverted School of Administrative Law of that university without ever attending any class, taking any test, and turning in a final dissertation.[17] An internal investigation by the URJC confirmed that the degrees were legitimate and uncovered no impropriety.[18]

Casado has said that he also earned a postgraduate degree at Harvard University; he had in fact attended a four-day course in 2008 at the Madrid campus of IESE Business School which is allied with Harvard Business School. No academic requirements were needed to attend the course, and attendance was the only requirement for completion.[19] The Supreme Court of Spain decided in September 2019 that he did not evidently violate laws against prevarication or bribery, but said the matter “could deserve other types of consideration outside criminal law."[20][21]

Start of political career

Casado entered politics and joined the People's Party (PP) in 2003 when he was still a student.[22][23]

He presided over the regional branch of the PP's youth organization in the

New Generations (NNGG), between 2005 and 2013.[24][25][26] He made an initiation journey to Cuba in early 2007 (similar to the 2012 travel by his right-hand in the Madrilenian NNGG Ángel Carromero),[n 2] where he met with Cuban dissidents such as Oswaldo Payá. He left written testimony of it in pieces published in Libertad Digital and El Mundo.[28][8]

Casado (white shirt) and Ángel Carromero (#2 numbered shirt) next to Esperanza Aguirre during a summer event of the Madrilenian "New Generations" in 2010

In 2007, he was included as candidate in the PP list for the election to the Assembly of Madrid; he became a member of the 8th term of the regional legislature (in June),[29] where he held the functions of spokesman in the parliamentary Commission of Justice and Public Administrations and assistant spokesman in the Commission of Budget and Finance.[30]

He resigned as regional legislator in July 2009.[31] In June 2009 Casado married Isabel Torres Orts;[32] the couple have a daughter Paloma and a son Pablo.[33] Isabel Torres is from a wealthy industrial family in Elche, and works as a psychologist in a private clinic in Madrid.[34]

Between 2009 and 2012 he directed the office of former Prime Minister José María Aznar. During this period, in 2010, he became one of the founders (along with Carlos Bustelo, Rafael Bardají and Enrique Navarro Gil) of the Friends of Israel Initiative think tank.[35][36]

National MP

During a press conference as vice secretary general of communication in 2017

He was included as candidate in the PP list for the constituency of Ávila in the November 2011 general election and became a member of the Congress of Deputies. He was subsequently re-elected in the 2015 and 2016 general elections.

He was designated spokesman of the Campaign Committee of the PP for the local and regional elections of May 2015.[37][38] Later, in June 2015, he was appointed vice secretary general of communication of the PP by the party president Mariano Rajoy.[39]

On 9 October 2017, Casado made a comment about the former

Spanish Second Republic. His words were used by some Catalan nationalists[by whom?] to suggest that he referred to Companys' execution by Franco's regime in 1940, although Casado stated he was referring to his imprisonment by the democratic Second Republic.[n 3]

19th PP National Congress

Casado between María Dolores de Cospedal and Mariano Rajoy during the 19th National Congress of the PP on 21 July 2018.

After the

Vox.[45]

He obtained the second most votes out of 6 candidates after Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, former Deputy Prime Minister of Spain, who received the most votes among the party members with a margin of 1,500 votes. On July 21, 2018, during the 19th Extraordinary National Congress of the PP, a final vote among 3,082 party delegates was held in order to decide the new leader of the PP between Sáenz de Santamaría and Casado.[46][47]

He won the voting among the delegates with 1,701 votes (57,2%) versus 1,250 (42%) votes to Sáenz de Santamaría out of 2,973 votes, being proclaimed as the new president, in what was considered a party swing towards the right.[48][49][50][51]

2019 election

In response to a budget defeat, Prime Minister

Pedro Sánchez dissolved the Cortes Generales,[52] giving Casado an early test of his leadership, which was also in the aftermath of the first right-of-centre government in Andalucia.[53]
The election results proved disappointing for Casado, his party losing over half of their seats in the Cortes Generales, with Albert Rivera's Citizens, overtaking them as the foremost party of the centre-right in many regions of Spain, and the new far-right Vox also taking a significant number of voters.[54][55] This major loss was devastating for Casado and for the 2019 election campaign manager, Javier Maroto, who not only lost his seat in the Basque country to EH Bildu, but was fired by PP.[56] Casado refused to resign, but many members' worries of the "suicide" that was his controversial leadership,[57] have been confirmed in light of the defeat, as he has now U-turned back to the political centre,[58][59] placing much of the blame of the loss on Cs and Vox, for splintering the vote.[60][61]

Casado adopted an active role during the COVID-19 lockdown, refraining from restricting public activities, visiting disparate locations such as Mercamadrid, a hotel, a sheep farm and the headquarters of the association of vehicle producers; he proceeded to criticise the Government of Spain from those platforms.[62] In May 2020 he established abstention on the vote on the extension of the State of Alarm as the party line.[63]

Leadership challenges

His leadership of the PP was challenged in 2022 by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the popular president of the community of Madrid, leading to a dramatic internal conflict. Ayuso went so far as to accuse Casado of maneuvering to "destroy" her. A large number of PP leaders and activists demanded Casado resign, but he refused. The president of Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, considered the most respected figure in the PP, said that "the situation is unsustainable. Pablo Casado's reign is coming to an end. We have to make difficult decisions."[64] Casado resigned as PP leader and an MP on 4 April, and was replaced as party leader by Feijóo.[65]

Political positions

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He has been described as

Valle de los Caídos.[70]

Casado in front of the Walls of Ávila in September 2018 during a ceremony for the opening of the political year, in which he inveighed against the Historical Memory Law.[71]

In October 2017, he vouched (on a personal basis) for a potential reform of the Organic Law of Political Parties which would include the illegalization of political parties promoting the independence (of a part of Spain).[72]

Annoyed by the decision of a German court to grant the extradition of Puigdemont to Spain solely for the charge of embezzlement in July 2018 (which he branded as "humiliation"), he raised the possibility of abolishing the Schengen Area.[73] In September 2018 he directly ordered the PP members of the European Parliament to abstain in the voting of the Sargentini report calling for triggering Article 7 proceedings against the Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán.[74]

Also in July 2018, he inveighed against "gender ideology", which he described as a form of "social collectivism the centre-right must fight against".[75] He is also critical of the right of abortion as well as euthanasia.[76]

On 21 July 2018, in the National Congress of the PP, he vowed to "reconquer the Catalan people". Referencing Tabarnia, a hypothetical anti-independentist breakaway from Catalonia, he said that he would be "turning the hypothetical Tabarnia into a real Tabarnia".[77][78]

He has declared the "Hispanidad" to be the mankind's greatest feat, only comparable to romanization.[79] According to Elorza, in his message, void of any criticism, Casado recovers the formulation of the concept of Hispanidad of the 1930s and reaffirms a particular idea of Spain, in which history, turned into a mechanism of exaltation, is used to propel a nationalist mobilization.[80]

The use by Casado of terminology such as accusing NGOs of being "human traffickers" while also criticizing a perceived "do-goodism" in the Sánchez Government regarding its migration policy has drawn comparisons to Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini by Steven Forti, of the Rolling Stone magazine.[81][n 4]

He also said that action for the historical memory of Francisco Franco's crimes should be brought about by consensus, and that Spain should concentrate on problems of the present, not the past.[83]

A

Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein revealed.[85] He has also considered as good move forward getting used to include praises to the King of Spain in everyday conversations[n 5] and deemed acts such as paying the pensions as a figurated way of saying Viva el Rey ("Long live the King").[87][86]

On 20 November 2021, he attended a special mass in Granada in the honour of the former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco on the anniversary of his death. The Francisco Franco National Foundation publicly thanked Casado's attendance.[88] The only explanation given by his political party was that he did not know what the mass was about, despite Franco flags and symbols being present in the church.[88]

On the economic front, he promised to eliminate taxes on wealth, inheritance and gifts, and to lower income and corporate taxes.[89]

Electoral history

Electoral history of Pablo Casado
Election List Constituency List position Result
2007 Madrilenian regional election PP - 40th (out of 120)[90] Elected
2011 Spanish general election PP Ávila 2nd (out of 3)[91] Elected
Las Navas del Marqués local election, 2015 PP - 13th (out of 13)[92] Unelected
2015 Spanish general election PP Ávila 1st (out of 3)[93] Elected
2016 Spanish general election PP Ávila 1st (out of 3)[94] Elected
2019 Spanish general election PP Madrid 1st (out of 37) Elected

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ In 2000, at age 19, Casado authored "Lupus Ahujus", a piece in El búho, the journal of the residential college he was enrolled in, the Colegio Mayor Elías Ahúja,[11] purposely describing in an humouristic way the pattern of behaviour of the (male) contingent of residents of the Colegio Mayor Elías Ahúja that he was part of. Through the metaphorical identification of the members of the Colegio Mayor Elías Ahúja with a fictional species of wolf, the Lupus Ahujus, Casado boasts about the Lupus Ahujus being a "rather evolved" species with superior craneal mass compared to other species, and encouraged to go out in pack preying (female) "wolves" (the most cherished prey) or, in a situation of shortage also (female) pigs, foxes or hens.[12] This has been identified with elements of the rape culture.[13] The text also labelled Romanian and Polish wolf subspecies as a "marginal chaste".[13][14]
  2. ^ Casado, who was the first member of the PP (along Esperanza Aguirre) to visit Carromero in prison after the car crash in which Payá died, was accused by the Cuban media of allegedly instigating the 2012 journey of Carromero and of being in the service of the Cuban opposition in Miami.[27]
  3. Generalitat. After the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), in 1940, Companys, while in exile, was captured in France by the Nazi police and sent back to Spain where he was tortured and later executed by Franco's authorities. Casado later stated that his remarks were referring to only the 1934 imprisonment of Companys, not to his execution in 1940.[42][43][44]
  4. ^ In July 2018 Consuelo Rumí, the Spanish Secretary of State for Migrations, also compared Casado to Salvini for he is also been critical of Spain's immigration policy.[82]
  5. ^ Be in the "street", in the "pub", in the "marketplace", in the "office" or in the "university".[86]

Citations

  1. ^ a b http://www.douaiabbey.org.uk/files/HistSchool.pdf Archived 3 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine Pupils at the Schools at Douai and Woolhampton
  2. ^ Arrebola, Aurora Santos-Olmo, África Gelardo (4 April 2022). "Casado registra su baja como diputado". ElDiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 April 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. Congress of Deputies
    . Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  4. ^ "Casado advierte a Puigdemont de que puede acabar encarcelado como Companys" [Casado warns Puigdemont that he may end up imprisoned as Companys]. El País (in Spanish). 9 October 2017. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  5. ^ Junquera, Natalia (21 July 2018). "Pablo Casado vence en el congreso del PP y consuma el giro a la derecha". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  6. ^ "Pablo Casado deja la presidencia del PP y su escaño en el Congreso de los Diputados". EL NACIONAL (in Spanish). Europa Press. 1 April 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  7. ^ a b "Pablo Casado: la biografía no oficial". El Plural (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2019.
  8. ^ a b Corbillón, Antonio (28 June 2015). "El cachorro aventajado de Aznar". Hoy.
  9. ^ Ruiz Valdivia, Antonio (5 August 2015). "27 cosas que no sabías de Pablo Casado". El Huffington Post (in Spanish). España Prisa Noticias S.L.U. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  10. ^
    Unidad Editorial Información General
    . Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  11. ^ "Sale a luz un texto machista de Casado que escribió en una revista de su colegio mayor". La Vanguardia. 14 February 2019.
  12. ^ "El text masclista que va escriure Casado quan tenia 19 anys". Ara. 14 February 2019.
  13. ^ a b "El texto machista y racista de Pablo Casado en el que ironizaba con cazas de "lobas y zorras"". La Marea. 14 February 2019.
  14. ^ "El texto machista de un joven Pablo Casado causa indignación en las redes". Deia. 14 February 2019.
  15. 20minutos.es
    . 16 May 2018.
  16. Congress of Deputies. "X Legislatura: Casado Blanco, Pablo"
    . Retrieved 10 October 2017 (in Spanish).
  17. ^ Dos alumnos del máster de Casado le contradicen: era obligatorio ir a clase y hacer trabajo final
  18. ^ "La URJC archiva la investigación sobre la licenciatura de Pablo Casado al no detectar irregularidades". 21 September 2018. Europa Press. 21 September 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  19. El Diario
    (in Spanish). Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  20. ^ Rincón, Reyes (29 September 2018). "El Supremo rechaza investigar a Pablo Casado por su máster". El País. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  21. eldiario.es
    (14 Mar 2019).
  22. ^ "Casado, el joven que venció a la todopoderosa Cospedal". La Vanguardia. 5 July 2018.
  23. ^ Hoz, Cristina de la (26 January 2015). "El Pablo de Rajoy". Tiempo. Archived from the original on 12 July 2018.
  24. El Mundo
    .
  25. ^ "Pablo Casado, elegido presidente de Nuevas Generaciones". El País. 29 May 2005.
  26. ^ Güemes, María Jesús (30 October 2013). "Pablo Casado trabajará en el PP nacional". Cadena SER.
  27. 20minutos
    .
  28. ^ Gómez, Luis (5 August 2012). "Viaje iniciático de un cachorro del PP". El País.
  29. ^ "Relación de diputados de la VIII legislatura del Grupo Parlamentario Popular". Assembly of Madrid. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  30. ^ "Ilmo. Sr. D. Pablo Casado Blanco". Assembly of Madrid. Archived from the original on 21 July 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  31. ISSN 1131-7043. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  32. ^ "Una boda de altura". Diario Información. 21 June 2009.
  33. ^ Rodrigo, Cristina (5 May 2017). "Diez cosas que no sabías de Pablo Casado, favorito a candidato del PP a la alcaldía de Madrid". El Español.
  34. ^ "Isabel Torres, la psicóloga que acompaña al nuevo líder del PP". La Vanguardia. 31 August 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
  35. ^ Medina, F. (15 January 2015). "Pablo Casado, ultraliberal, anticastrista, antiprogresista... y encendido prosionista". El Plural.
  36. ^ "Orden CUL/2994/2010, de 27 de octubre, por la que se inscribe en el Registro de Fundaciones la Fundación Friends of Israel Initiative" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (282). 22 November 2010.
  37. ^ Cué, Carlos E. (12 January 2015). "Carlos Floriano será el director de campaña del PP para las elecciones". El País.
  38. ^ "Carlos Floriano dirigirá la campaña del PP y Pablo Casado será portavoz". Libertad Digital. 12 January 2015.
  39. ^ "Pablo Casado vicesecretario de Comunicación y Martínez Maíllo de Organización". Cadena COPE. 18 June 2015.
  40. 20minutos
    . 6 October 2009.
  41. Eldiario.es
    .
  42. ^ Stothard, Michael (9 October 2017). "Madrid warns of jail risk for Catalan leader". Financial Times. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  43. ^ "Esto es lo que ha dicho Pablo Casado sobre Companys". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  44. ^ Fotheringham, Alasdair (10 October 2017). "Spanish ruling party threatens to jail Catalan leader if he declares independence". The Independent. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  45. Eldiario.es
    .
  46. ^ "Resultados definitivos primarias PP" (PDF). La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 5 July 2018. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  47. Eldiario.es
    . 21 July 2018.
  48. ^ Junquera, Natalia (21 July 2018). "Pablo Casado vence en el congreso del PP y consuma el giro a la derecha". El País.
  49. ^ Jones, Sam (22 July 2018). "Spanish People's party shifts to right with new leader". The Guardian.
  50. ^ "Spain's conservatives swing to the right with new leader". Reuters. 21 July 2018. Archived from the original on 22 March 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  51. ^ "La prensa global señala el giro a la derecha del PP con Casado, un "conservador de línea dura"". Radiocable. 23 July 2018.
  52. ^ Reid, David (15 February 2019). "Spanish prime minister calls snap election after budget fails to pass". www.cnbc.com. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  53. ^ "Moreno presenta a su gabinete y avisa: "El Gobierno es uno, sin distinción de siglas"". El Confidencial (in Spanish). 6 May 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  54. ^ "El PSOE gana las elecciones pero necesitará pactar y el PP sufre una debacle histórica". El País (in Spanish). 28 April 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  55. ^ "Spain's socialist PSOE party mulls next move after victory without majority". The Guardian (in Spanish). 29 April 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  56. ^ "Maroto, relegado como director de campaña tras el fracaso del PP en las urnas". Libertad Digital (in Spanish). 30 April 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  57. ^ "Sánchez gana y la derecha se suicida". El Confidencial (in Spanish). 29 April 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  58. ^ "Casado hunde al PP con el peor resultado de su historia y no dimite a un mes de las autonómicas y municipales". eldiario.es (in Spanish). 28 April 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  59. ^ "Feijóo y Casado escenifican en Galicia el viraje al centro del PP: "Aquí cabemos todos"". El Confidencial (in Spanish). 4 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  60. ^ "Casado se proclama representante único del centro derecha y carga contra Cs y Vox". El Confidencial (in Spanish). 30 April 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  61. ^ "El 28A deriva en una batalla campal entre las tres derechas a menos de un mes de otras elecciones". eldiario.es (in Spanish). 3 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  62. eldiario.es
    .
  63. ^ Riego, Carmen del (6 May 2020). "Casado anuncia la abstención del PP pero advierte que votará en contra si quiere más prórrogas". La Vanguardia.
  64. ^ "La guerra entre Casado y Ayuso abre la mayor crisis en la historia del PP". 17 February 2022.
  65. ^ White, Cristina Tomàs. "Pablo Casado steps down as head of People's Party and quits politics". www.catalannews.com.
  66. ^ Gómez, Luis (5 August 2012). "Viaje iniciático de un cachorro del PP". El País.
  67. ^ Adúriz, Íñigo (26 April 2017). "Estas son las tres nuevas alternativas de Rajoy a la pantalla de plasma". Vanity Fair.
  68. ^ "Pablo Casado: "Condeno el vídeo contra Soraya. Mi candidatura busca la unidad"". Cadena COPE. 14 July 2018.
  69. ^ Villacañas, José Luis (23 July 2018). "Un líder en el vacío". Levante-EMV.
  70. ^ Elorza, Antonio (1 August 2018). "Conservadores y reaccionarios". El País.
  71. Cadena Ser
    . 2 September 2018.
  72. Eldiario.es
    . 9 October 2017.
  73. Eldiario.es
    . 12 July 2018.
  74. ^ Riego, Carmen (12 September 2018). "El líder del PP ordena abstenerse en la sanción europea a Hungría". La Vanguardia.
  75. Eldiario.es
    .
  76. Eldiario.es
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  77. ^ Gil, Iván (21 July 2018). "Casado ofrece al partido renovación y recuperar los votos perdidos por la derecha". El Confidencial.
  78. ^ "Esa Tabarnia hipotética va a ser una Tabarnia de verdad". E-notícies. 21 July 2018.
  79. ^ Blanco, Patricia R. (15 October 2018). "La afirmación "ultranacionalista" y "exagerada" de Casado: "La hispanidad es el hito más importante del hombre"". El País.
  80. ^ Elorza, Antonio (17 October 2018). "Hispanidad". El País.
  81. Rolling Stone
    .
  82. ^ Keely, Graham (31 July 2018). "Spain's Conservative leader Pablo Casado is 'just like Italy's Matteo Salvini'". The Times.
  83. ^ Amírola, Rodrigo. "Spain's Right-Wing Populist". Jacobin Magazine. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  84. ^ Amón, Rubén (30 June 2018). "Pablo Casado, el cachorro ya tiene colmillos". El País.
  85. Europa Press
    . 16 July 2018.
  86. ^ a b "La palabras que Casado dedicó a Juan Carlos I: "Estamos diciendo 'viva el rey' cuando pagamos las pensiones"". Público. 9 September 2018.
  87. eldiario.es
    . 9 September 2018.
  88. ^ a b "El PP asegura que Casado fue a la misa por Francisco Franco sin saberlo". Cadena SER. 22 November 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  89. ^ "La agenda neoliberal de Casado rema a contracorriente de la OCDE, el FMI, el Banco de España y Biden". 16 May 2021.
  90. ISSN 1889-4410
    .
  91. ISSN 0212-033X
    .
  92. ^ "Proclamación de candidaturas para elecciones municipales de 2015 en la Zona de Ávila" (PDF). Boletín Oficial de la Provincia de Ávila (79): 97. 28 April 2015.
  93. ISSN 0212-033X
    .
  94. ISSN 0212-033X
    .
Party political offices
Preceded by President of the People's Party
2018–2022 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Vacant
Title last held by
Pedro Sánchez
 		Leader of the Opposition
2018–2022 		Succeeded by
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