He was an exceptional politician. That is an epitaph that few deserve as much as the late Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, former Spanish deputy prime minister, who died yesterday. The type of figure that a country usually has no more than one or two of per generation, if it has any. A politician who took the long view, able to visualize before anyone the end of the ETA terrorist group and foster the conditions for the resolution of the armed conflict; also, with the capacity to plan, from the shadows, the resignation of king Juan Carles I, in 2014, when everything was going wrong for the Spanish monarchy, with scandalous cases such as the king's elephant shoot in Botswana and his relationship with German princess Corinna. A politician of state and of a single state (the Spanish one, of course). A leader experienced as few others are in tackling a political negotiation and not getting more hair out of place than necessary, as the politicians of other parties that have dealt with him know very well, above all, Catalan pro-independence and nationalist leaders.
It was this last facet, that of a negotiator, together with his ability as a brilliant speaker, that was best known to the public. He was implacable at the lecturn in the Spanish Congress or using one of his multiple stratagems to achieve a result, like that in the aftermath of the 2004 Madrid train bombings when, on his own, he defeated Mariano Rajoy electorally without being a candidate, by means of a single phrase: "Spaniards deserve a government that tells the truth." And leaving no stone unturned in negotiation or debate, given that, since he slept little, he was never tired. Nor hungry. I had the opportunity to converse and discuss with Alfredo on dozens of occasions and to get to know at first hand some of the behind-closed-doors aspects of politics, those details that make your hair stand on end which journalists love, always in the context of an off-the-record comment that would give us an advantageous position. For many years, he bore a deserved fame as Machiavellian, that quality which leads a politician to acquire the most fervent defenders and the most relentless detractors. I have been, for many years, among the first category.
His political intelligence and his astuteness were extraordinary, it was quite remarkable. One of the phrases he repeated most in recent years to explain the dimension of the historical change that had taken place in Catalonia and the way it could evolve in the future was this: "In Catalonia they bury people with the senyera and baptize them with the estelada"(1). His panic about an independent Catalonia, something he didn't want and was prepared to fight even from a distance after losing power, is what lay behind a key phrase he uttered at the end of January last year, which gave important clues in advance on how Spain's deep state would prevent the inauguration of Carles Puigdemont as Catalan president. "Puigdemont cannot be the president of Catalonia because he is a fugitive. The State will pay the cost of getting Puigdemont out of the way so that he cannot become Catalan president. I only ask the [Rajoy] government to be skillful and for the discredit of Spain to be the least possible". The State did indeed pay the cost, doing all it had to do without thinking twice, but the Rajoy government, shameless as it was, was neither skillful nor able to prevent the international discredit in which Spain is now immersed.
When in the distant future, historians look back over the Spanish politicians who have stood out in these first decades since the death of Franco and in the midst of a worrying mediocrity, Rubalcaba will be there, among them, as the most complete and charismatic politician of the second stage of the Spanish transition.
(1) Translator's note: the senyera is Catalonia's national flag; the estelada - which in Rubalcaba's image is associated with Catalonia's youth or future - is the pro-independence version of this flag.