Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, 67, Dies; Helped End Basque Terrorism

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/12/obituaries/alfredo-perez-rubalcaba-dies.html

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MADRID — Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, a former leader of Spain’s Socialist Party who is credited with helping end Basque separatist violence, died on Friday in Madrid. He was 67.

His death, following a stroke, was confirmed by the Spanish government, which decreed an official day of mourning.

Mr. Rubalcaba was part of the generation that entered politics just as the country was transitioning from dictatorship to democracy, after the death in 1975 of Gen. Francisco Franco.

Born on July 21, 1951, in Medio Cudeyo, Spain, Mr. Rubalcaba was a chemist by training. He lectured in universities both in Spain and overseas, and his initial climb up the ranks of the Socialist Party was linked to his expertise in education, culminating in his appointment as minister of education and science in 1992, a decade after the Socialist Party first won office, under the leadership of Felipe González.

One of his final tasks during Mr. González’s premiership was challenging. As the official spokesman of the government, Mr. Rubalcaba tried to play down a series of political scandals that eventually forced the Socialists out of office. Some of these scandals related to fraud, but perhaps the most damaging one concerned the discovery that the Spanish authorities had been using an unlawful paramilitary force to kill the terrorists of ETA, the Basque separatist group.

In March 2004, Mr. Rubalcaba played a critical part in the comeback of the Socialists, who were returned to power in an election that took place amid a national tragedy, shortly after the Madrid train bombings that were Spain’s worst terrorist attack.

As soon as the bombs exploded on commuter trains bound for Madrid’s Atocha station, the then conservative government sought to attribute the killings to ETA. The government then maintained that claim even amid mounting evidence that the bombings had been masterminded by Islamic rather than Basque terrorists.

A day before the election, Mr. Rubalcaba urged voters to make the conservative government pay for this, saying that “Spaniards deserve a government that doesn’t lie to them.” The fierce debate over who was responsible for the bombings provoked street demonstrations and eventually helped José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the new Socialist leader, unseat the conservative Popular Party in the election.

Under Mr. Zapatero, Mr. Rubalcaba held different ministerial jobs, most significantly that of interior minister, which again put him at the heart of Spain’s struggle against ETA.

In 2006, a significantly weakened ETA declared a cease-fire, but then broke the truce a few months later, when Basque terrorists bombed the parking lot of Madrid’s airport, killing two people. Mr. Rubalcaba then coordinated efforts to dismantle ETA, with the Spanish police arresting several ETA leaders, often in cooperation with its counterpart in neighboring France. ETA declared another cease-fire in October 2011, and then formally disbanded last year, ending one of Europe’s longest terrorism campaigns, which had killed more than 800 people.

But by 2011, Spain was sinking into a banking crisis and facing record unemployment. An increasingly unpopular Mr. Zapatero handed over the leadership of the Socialists to Mr. Rubalcaba, in the run-up to another national election, forecasting that the leadership change could save the Socialists. Referring to Mr. Rubalcaba’s past as a champion sprinter in college, Mr. Zapatero said that “somebody who is a sprinter and has been capable of running 100 meters in just over 10 seconds is capable of winning elections in 10 months.”

But in November of that year, the Socialists suffered a humiliating defeat, and the Popular Party returned to office with a parliamentary majority.

Even so, Mr. Rubalcaba survived a challenge to his Socialist Party leadership, narrowly defeating Carme Chacón, who had been the defense minister in Mr. Zapatero’s administration. Two years later, after voters once more shunned the Socialists in the elections to the European Parliament, Mr. Rubalcaba withdrew from politics. He returned to academia, teaching chemistry at the Complutense, one of Madrid’s major universities.

Mr. Rubalcaba is survived by his wife, Pilar Goya. The couple did not have children.

Mr. Rubalcaba’s death coincided with another election campaign, as Spain holds municipal, regional and European Parliament elections on May 26.

After hearing that Mr. Rubalcaba had suffered a stroke, Pedro Sánchez, the Socialist prime minister, cut short a trip to Romania to visit Mr. Rubalcaba in the hospital. The Socialist Party suspended its election campaign activities on Saturday to respect the day of mourning for Mr. Rubalcaba.

Mr. Sánchez said that Mr. Rubalcaba was an example of “commitment to the cause of democracy and freedom in Spain, to which he dedicated his whole life.” Mr. Zapatero wrote that Mr. Rubalcaba was “essential and decisive in ending terrorism in Spain.”