Memoria viva de la transición

Memoria viva de la transición is the title of the memories of the former Spanish Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo . It is the first book in a series of memoirs dealing with the events and background of the Spanish transition . The following works are Papeles de un cesante (1999), Pláticas de familia (1878–2003) (2003) and Sobre la transición exterior (2005).

“Memoria viva de la transición” was published in June 1990 in Barcelona by Plaza & Janés. It has not yet been translated into German. The author dedicated the book to his wife and close collaborators Luis Sánchez Merlo, Ignacio Aguirre, Matías Rodríguez Inciarte and Eugenio Galdón. The memories appeared eight years after his time at the Moncloa Palace . The Spanish sociologist Bernabé Sarabia calls it "a critical analysis of the years that began as trade minister in the first government of the monarchy in 1975 and ended with the hangover of the enormous defeat of the UCD, which Calvo Sotelo suffered as Prime Minister on the part of the PSOE in 1982. "

Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo himself describes the matters dealt with: “The prehistory of the transition, the resignation of Suárez, the succession proposal, the assumption of office and the government from 1981, which happened after February 23, the rise and fall of UCD , the badly named natural majority, the problem of autonomy, the Atlantic polemics, the negotiations on the internal market, entrepreneurs and economic policy. ”The book, which is equipped with 68 photographs, reports on meetings between Calvo-Sotelos and others. a. with Juan Carlos , Adolfo Suárez , Felipe González , Santiago Carrillo , Josep Tarradellas , Jordi Pujol , Helmut Schmidt , François Mitterrand , Ronald Reagan , Margaret Thatcher , Roy Jenkins , Harold Wilson , King Baudouin and Gaston Thorn .

reception

Camilo José Cela presented the book in Madrid on May 31, 1990 and said: “Memoria viva de la transición [is] for me one of the most intelligent, astute and humorous political memoirs that have been written in Spain in this century.” Pablo Pérez López dedicated an extensive article to him with the title “The reader who ran the government”, from which the following passage is quoted: “The image that Memoria viva de la transición creates is a high concept of politics, and from this Reason enemy of a policy of short-lived, vile evasive maneuvers. He reveals a man who longed to change its epoch in order to lead Spain to where he believed it belonged and was not. ”The Spanish publicist Arcadi Espada writes:“ His memoirs, along with those of Fernández de la Mora, is the best book that a Spanish politician has ever written after the civil war. "

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Memoria viva de la transición, pp. 7 and 9.
2. ↑ Bernabé Sarabia, in: El Cultural, Archived Copy ( Memento of the original from December 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Foreword to Memoria viva de la transición, pp. 13 and 14.
4. ↑ [1]
5. ^ With Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo in Ribadeo, 2009, p. 21
6. ↑ Nueva Revista, No. 147, archived copy ( memento of the original from July 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ El Mundo May 4, 2008, accessed July 31, 2017