Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba (; 28 July 1951 – 10 May 2019) was a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

statesman, politician and

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

who served as

Deputy Prime Minister of Spain The first deputy prime minister of Spain, officially First Vice President of the Government of Spain ( es, Vicepresidencia Primera del Gobierno de España), is the second in command to the prime minister of Spain, assuming its duties when the Pr ...

from 2010 to 2011, and previously as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993, as Minister of the Presidency from 1993 to 1996, as

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

from 2006 to 2011 and as acting

Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

between May and June 2008. He also served as

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

from 2011 to 2014 and as Secretary-General of the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

(PSOE) from 2012 to 2014. He obtained a PhD in Organic Chemistry at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loc ...

Life and career

He was born in Solares village, municipality of Medio Cudeyo, in the

province of Santander Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the eas ...

. Moved at age 3 to Madrid with his family, he studied at the Colegio del Pilar. He obtained a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in chemistry at

Complutense University The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, where he went on to become a professor of chemistry, specialising in reaction mechanisms in

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J ...

. He represented Toledo in Congress from 1993 to 1996,

from 1996 until 2004,

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

from 2004 to 2008 and, despite not being Andalusian, was put forward for the safe parliamentary seat of

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

in the 2008 election, which he won. He was also a passionate and practitioner of athletics, reaching the 100 meter run in 11 seconds.

González cabinet

Rubalcaba was appointed

Secretary of State for Education The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. The incumbent is a member of the C ...

in 1986 and in 1992 he was promoted to Minister of Education and Science by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Felipe González Felipe González Márquez (; born 5 March 1942) is a Spanish lawyer, professor, and politician, who was the Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from 1974 to 1997, and the 3rd Prime Minister of Spain since th ...

. After the 1993 general election he was appointed Minister of the Presidency and Relations with the Cortes and Spokesperson of the Government until 1996 when his party lost the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

. He was re-elected MP for

. As a Minister he had to face the accusations that involved the government of Felipe González with the GAL paramilitary group.

Interior minister and deputy prime minister

For the 2004 Spanish general election, Rubalcaba was responsible for the electoral strategy of the

PSOE The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

. Some political analysts attribute him a decisive role in the socialist victory. After the constitution of the

Cortes Generales The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies m ...

, Pérez Rubalcaba was appointed Leader of the Socialist Group in the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...

. On 11 April 2006 he replaced

José Antonio Alonso José Antonio Alonso Suárez (28 March 1960 – 2 February 2017) was a Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) politician, cabinet minister and judge. He was born in León. A jurist (judge since 1985 after graduating from the University of Leon ...

as head of the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

. It was in this ministry where he gained popularity within his party, thanks, among other measures, to the change of direction in the fight against terrorism that led to the end of the violence of

ETA Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

. However, several media and political parties accused Rubalcaba of being involved in the ''Faisán case'', about an extortion network of ETA, a fact that has not been verified. After the socialist victory in the general elections of 2008, Pérez Rubalcaba was renewed in the ministerial portfolio, occupying again the position of Minister of the Interior to exercise during the IX Legislature. Between 20 May and 30 June 2008 he assumed the duties of

Minister of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in s ...

temporarily during the maternity leave of the head of the department,

Carme Chacón Carme Maria Chacón Piqueras (; March 13, 1971April 9, 2017) was a Spanish lawyer, lecturer and politician who was minister of Defence from 2008 to 2011 in the cabinet led by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Member of Sp ...

, combining these functions with his work in front of Interior. He replaced on 21 October 2010

María Teresa Fernández de la Vega María Teresa Fernández de la Vega Sanz (born 15 June 1949) is a Spanish politician and magistrate of the Socialist Party. During her political career, she served as first deputy prime minister, minister of the Presidency and government spok ...

as First

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

and Spokesperson of the Government, accumulating these charges to the head of the Interior portfolio. On 10 January 2011, ETA declared that their September 2010 ceasefire would be permanent and verifiable by international observers.ETA declares permanent ceasefire
The Guardian, 10 January 2011 On 20 October 2011, the Basque terrorist group, after 43 years of activity and more than 800 deaths in Spain, announced its definitive cessation of violence. As minister he also had to face the high accident rate on Spanish roads. His mandate was the most successful in history in reducing the number of fatalities and became a benchmark at European level.

Premiership candidate

As it became assumed that President Zapatero was not going to seek reelection he became favorite to succeed him with

as his only rival in the primaries. Nevertheless, in May 2011, Chacón announced that she was withdrawing from the race and in June the Party announced that no other candidate had filed and Rubalcaba became the PSOE's candidate to the premiership for the 2011 general elections. On 8 July 2011, he resigned from his duties in the government in order to focus on the general election campaign, which he lost getting the worst results in PSOE's history. He filed to succeed José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as PSOE's General Secretary and won the vote, held on 6 February 2012. He received 487 votes against 465 for Carme Chacón.

Stepping down and later life

Due to the bad results of the party in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

, on 26 May 2014 he resigned of the office. After a leadership election, Rubalcaba was succeeded by the newly elected Secretary General

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having p ...

on 13 July 2014. In September 2016 it was announced that Pérez Rubalcaba rejoined his position as Chemistry professor at the

and, in addition, he joined the editorial board of the Spanish newspaper ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'', of which he was part until July 2018. Amid the

2019 Madrid City Council election The 2019 Madrid City Council election, also the 2019 Madrid municipal election, was held on Sunday, 26 May 2019, to elect the 11th City Council of the municipality of Madrid. All 57 seats in the City Council were up for election. The election was ...

, on 26 December 2018 he rejected the proposal of

to be the PSOE candidate for mayor of

Death

Rubalcaba was admitted to the Puerta de Hierro Hospital, in Majadahonda, on 8 May 2019 when he had suffered a severe

stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

after teaching in the university. He died two days later aged 67 and PSOE cancelled all the acts of the first day of the campaign for local elections. He had a funeral with state honors at the Congress of Deputies.La capilla ardiente de Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, en imágenes

References

External links

Listo para el gran sprint. El Pais article
, - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Perez Rubalcaba, Alfredo 1951 births 2019 deaths Complutense University of Madrid Politicians from Cantabria Complutense University of Madrid alumni Deputy Prime Ministers of Spain Government ministers of Spain Leaders of political parties in Spain Members of the 5th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 6th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 7th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 8th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 9th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 10th Congress of Deputies (Spain) People from Trasmiera Spanish chemists Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians Interior ministers of Spain Secretaries of State of Spain