Aristocracy The Suárez Illana family, about to break for a noble title
Anniversary Five years after the death of Adolfo Suárez, his family does not make peace
On January 29, it was 40 years since the resignation of Adolfo Suárez as Prime Minister in 1981. The day before, he went to Zarzuela to communicate his decision to the Monarch, to whom he had
a close friendship
for years
,
so much so that alone called him Juanito.
As he left his office, he bitterly commented to Fernández Campo, head of the Royal Household: "I knew I had the military, Psoe, my party in front of me, but now, Sabino,
I also have the King against
me."
In the early 1980s,
The military did not forgive Suárez for having legalized the PCE and also suffered
the harassment of the PSOE
and the barons of UCD.
According to Fernández Campo, "the King began to be sensitive to these criticisms and Adolfo, who perceived his cooling, commented to me:
'Before the King gave me very affectionate hugs
But now he's very distant from me. '
So much so that when he announced his resignation, far from trying to dissuade him, he limited himself to asking an aide: "What must be done to replace the president?"
Unthinkable tension in two characters that
they had been nail and flesh,
so much so that together they devised this project to go from 40 years of dictatorship to full democracy without shedding a drop of blood called transition.
They had great personal chemistry, as they were self-made men: "The King and I
we are politicians
"Suárez joked. He was referring to the difficult trajectory of the monarch in the midst of the crossfire between Franco and Don Juan, irreconcilable enemies. Also to his, a lawyer born in the town of Cebreros in Avila, whose dream to reach the top paid off with a great loneliness far from his family: "I would drive nails into my soles to hear some noise."
He met the then Prince as the civil governor of Segovia and they sympathized so much that when he was appointed director of RTVE, he strove to enhance his image.
So much so that he refused to
broadcast the wedding of the granddaughter
from
Frank
, Carmencita, with Alfonso de Borbón, who overshadowed Juan Carlos in his aspirations to the throne.
When in July 76, Suarez, then minister of the movement without any democratic patina, was elected president of the first royal government, a certain disappointment spread, since it was unknown that
it was a personal bet of the King
to blow up the Franco regime.
They were so confident that when he went to Zarzuela to swear in office, the monarch jokingly hid behind a curtain to scare him.
Winner in the first democratic elections of 1977, Suárez won integers before Don Juan Carlos,
displacing Torcuato in influence
Fernández-Miranda, the other man of the King.
One of the last visits of the King Father to the politician
SO
But things went wrong, with the country mired in serious problems.
"
Adolfo accepted the advice less and less
of the Monarch "Sabino revealed. His biggest disagreements, according to him, were the way to carry out the legalization of the PCE," with which the King agreed but disapproved of deceiving the military, who did not forgive him. " The general
Navy
, one of the leaders of the 23F coup, who "had great influence over the King, but Suarez didn't trust him a bit and he was right, because he betrayed him."
After his resignation, Don Juan Carlos was so angry that he considered not granting him
the duchy of Suárez
, although he reconsidered and gave it to him.
Time settled things down: with the overwhelming socialist victory of 1982, Felipe González, the head of government who has had the best relationship with the King along with Suárez, became president.
He left UCD to found the CDS, the forerunner of the current Ciudadanos, without much success, so
He left politics in 1991.
His intention was to devote himself to his family, to which he had not been able to dedicate much time, but a chain of misfortunes awaited him: in 1993 his first-born
Mariam
, pregnant, was diagnosed with breast cancer, died in 2004, also in May 2001 his wife died of cancer
Protection
Illana and in 2005 it turned out that Suárez suffered from Alzheimer's, a disease that deprived him even of remembering who he was.
These tragedies greatly affected Don Juan Carlos, who forgot the quarrels
, had regained friendship
with his Transitional alter ego and turned to him.
In 2008 he was awarded the Golden Fleece, the highest distinction that he went to present in person to his villa in La Florida.
According to Suárez Illana, the first-born of the former president, Adolfo did not recognize him: "Who are you?" He asked when he saw him.
"
Who am I going to be, idiot
Well, your friend Juan Carlos, "replied the King. Suárez, as if he remembered, gave him a big smile and the Monarch, affectionately taking him by the shoulder, took him for a walk through the garden, an iconic image that Suarez Illana captured.
When the
wizard of the transition
passed away on March 23, 2014, Don Juan Carlos, very saddened, spoke on television.
"
My gratitude is deep and my pain is very great
"He affirmed. Perhaps that loss, three months before his abdication, also meant goodbye to a unique stage, in which, as Suárez's epitaph points out," harmony was possible. "
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