Spain dismisses the last socialist of the old school, who died on Wednesday

USPA NEWS - Spain lives on Saturday a day of official mourning for the death, on Friday, of the former minister and vice president of the Spanish Government Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba. The former socialist leader died as a result of a stroke that occurred on Wednesday, when he was retired from the political front and was teaching as a professor of Organic Chemistry at the Complutense University of Madrid.

Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba died at the age of 67 years. He was one of the most respected politicians in Spain and had occupied almost all positions of responsibility during thirty years of dedication to politics: he was minister of education in the Government of socialist Felipe Gonzalez, during the 80s of the last century, and Interior Minister and Vice President of the Government with the Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, as well as Government spokesman.

With his death, the old socialism also died, which played a fundamental role during the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Spain and which put the interests of the State before those of the party itself. Something that the new Spanish Socialist leaders seem to have forgotten - and, in general, all the political parties - which caused the deceased former leader of the Socialist Party to be sad.

The burning chapel of Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba was installed on Friday in the Congress of Deputies, where the Kings of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia, moved to express their condolences to the widow of the deceased politician and pay tribute. This Saturday were the emeritus Kings, Juan Carlos I and Sofia, who came to pay tribute to the Socialist. Also politicians of all conditions, from the former Socialist President Felipe Gonzalez and his Vice President Alfonso Guerra, to the former conservative President Mariano Rajoy, the current leader of the conservatives, Pablo Casado, and leaders of the new parties such as centrist Albert Rivera, Citizens, or the extreme left represented in Podemos. And the current Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez.

But it is the hundreds of citizens who spontaneously approached the Congress to pay homage to the deceased politician who gives the exact measure of the importance that Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba has in Spanish politics. A politician who accumulated a lot of power during his time in the Government of Spain, but who did not show off him. As Minister of Education, he launched several of the Spanish universities that currently impart knowledge to young people; and as Minister of the Interior laid the foundations of the policy that led to the defeat of the terrorist organization ETA.

The body of Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba was incinerated on Saturday afternoon in a ceremony reserved exclusively for his family. The flags of all public buildings in Spain wave at half in mourning. Spain, which is immersed in another election campaign, this time for local, regional and European next May 26, mourns the politician and university professor who, as highlighted by the Spanish Royal House in his condolences, just after the death , always had a high concept of State. "We will always remember him and we will appreciate his high institutional sense," said the Royal House.