Exactly two years. That's how long Albert Rivera's first adventure in the world of work has lasted, at the Martínez-Echevarría legal partnership, which had hired him to the sound of drumrolls and clashing cymbals after his resignation from politics, and had even changed the name of the firm to Martínez-Echevarría & Rivera lawyers. Spanish voters had abandoned him a few days earlier, with an almighty slap in the face in the November 2019 elections, in which the party he led, Ciudadanos (Cs), fell from 57 seats to nine. There are many different ways to make an exit, but most are not valid if the capital you depend on is not your professional capacity or your prestige, but rather, your contacts. It is a long time since a public figure left his workplace by literally going out of the window, departing from a partnership of 250 lawyers amid quite explicit accusations from his bosses and colleagues of being a layabout and a big mouth. It is clear that Ciudadanos is a hologram rather than a party and that Rivera is a politician who has been evicted.
Because, usually, professional differences of opinion are resolved discreetly, via a negotiated withdrawal, when objectives are not achieved. In the case of Rivera, the firm pointed out that his productivity was well below any reasonable standard and reaching worrying levels, that his performance was null and his contribution was zero. At his 42 years of age, it is not a good look to have on his CV, since his agenda is out of fashion, his ambition unlimited, and if it is really true that he aspired to all competencies within the firm, it will close more than one door - and the idea of riding back into politics as the saviour of Ciudadanos does not really seem possible.
It continues to speak volumes that the party of hatred, anti-Catalan and which came into the world blowing up bridges of dialogue in Catalan society, has collapsed like the cardboard cutout it was. It was useful while the PSOE was floundering around and Podemos was occupying part of the electorate. The PP was not enough to stop them both and Vox did not exist. Those were the days of private dining rooms in Madrid and upper floors on Barcelona's Diagonal. Of journalists complicit in plans to put an end to the Catalan school system and businesspeople who would lead a Spanish Catalonia. This was happening in Barcelona not so many years ago and Rivera went on Spanish television almost as if he were the owner. But this politician, without ideas and without principles, failed to notice that his time had passed and dug his own grave through a series of mistakes, of almost beginner-level, in coming to believe that, from Ciudadanos, he really could be the prime minister of Spain. It wasn't enough to be a kingmaker: he wanted the whole cake, even if he had to get tangled up with everybody to get close to it.
It is likely that in his brief professional career he wanted to apply the same model. Never having learnt that in working life, cheapskate manoeuvres don't work and that, in general, people are more disciplined and put in the hard yards. In the end, in public life there is an amateurism that you don't find in large companies, regardless of the sector, which are much more professional and have a lot of money at stake. So much so that they can refer to Rivera as a layabout, a description that, in politics, might not be so pejorative, nor would it have so many consequences. In fact, Mariano Rajoy came to the Spanish prime ministerial job amid accusations of laziness and Pedro Sanchez has also been singled out as a sloth. But one went back to his property valuer's job and we shall see what the other does when he leaves the Moncloa and perhaps which board of directors awaits him.
But being an executive is another thing, and Rivera, whose boots weren't big enough for him to step into major directorships, had to go to work at 40 and the result is what it is. On the firm's website he still appears as the company's chief executive and as a lecturer on leadership. Those who signed up for that master's degree should ask for their money back.