Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba (Spanish pronunciation: [alˈfɾeðo ˈpeɾeθ ruβalˈkaβa]; 28 July 1951 – 10 May 2019) was a Spanish statesman, politician and chemist who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Spain 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 from 2006 to 2011 and as acting Minister of Defence between May and June 2008.
He also served as Leader of the Opposition from 2011 to 2014 and as Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from 2012 to 2014. He obtained a PhD in Organic Chemistry at the Complutense University of Madrid.
Early life and academic career
He was born in the village of Solares, in the Medio Cudeyo municipality, Santander province. He moved aged 3 to Salamanca, Madrid, with his family and studied at the Colegio del Pilar. His father was an Iberia pilot, and his grandfather was a Republican captain. He joined the PSOE in 1974, and, being a keen athlete at school, ran the 100 metres in 10.9 seconds at the national championships. He married chemist Pilar Goya, a childhood friend with whom he reconnected at university. He achieved a chemistry doctorate at the Complutense University of Madrid, and in his previous academic career, he became a senior lecturer in organic chemistry in 1984. He also worked at the University of Konstanz and the University of Montpellier, where his main contributions to the scientific field were his studies on reaction mechanisms.
Rubalcaba's early involvement in politics began in the wake of the murder of fellow Colegio del Pilar alumni Enrique Ruano by the Francoist secret police.
He spoke fluent Spanish, English and French, and had a working knowledge of German from his time lecturing at Konstanz.
He represented Toledo in Congress from 1993 to 1996, Madrid from 1996 until 2004, Cantabria from 2004 to 2008 and, despite not being Andalusian, was put forward for the safe parliamentary seat of Cádiz in the 2008 election, which he won.
With Felipe González's election win in 1982, Rubalcaba took on various posts in the Education Ministry, including Director of the Technical Cabinet for the Secretary of State for Universities and Investigation.
Rubalcaba was appointed Secretary of State for Education in 1986 and in 1992 he was promoted to Minister of Education and Science by Prime Minister Felipe González. 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. He was re-elected as the representative for Madrid. As a Minister he had to face the accusations that involved the government of Felipe González with the GAL paramilitary group, as well as to use his negotiation skills to get both parties around the table when neither party co-operated.
In 1997, Rubalcaba was appointed as a member of the PSOE executive, and his inclusion was seen as a sign of his role to play in the next era outside of government. His bipartisanship made him one of the main Congress figures keeping in touch with ETA following a truce agreed in 1999. When José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was elected leader in 2000, Rubalcaba joined the party's federal committee, playing a key role in the party's road map back to government. He brought the PSOE and PP together in December 2000 to agree to work with each other to fight against ETA.
Interior minister and deputy prime minister
For the 2004 Spanish general election, Rubalcaba was responsible for the electoral strategy of the PSOE. Some political analysts attribute him a decisive role in the socialist victory.
After the investiture of the Cortes Generales, Pérez Rubalcaba was appointed Leader of the Socialist Group in the Congress of Deputies. On 11 April 2006 he replaced José Antonio Alonso as head of the Ministry of the Interior. 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. 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 kept his ministerial portfolio, remaining Interior Minister during the IX Legislature. Between 20 May and 30 June 2008 he assumed the duties of Minister of Defence temporarily when Carme Chacón was on maternity leave, combining these functions with his work as Interior Minister.
On 21 October 2010 he replaced María Teresa Fernández de la Vega as Deputy Prime Minister and Spokesperson of the Government, combining this with his responsibilities as head of the Interior portfolio.
On 10 January 2011, ETA declared that their September 2010 ceasefire would be permanent and verifiable by international observers. 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 attempts to solve it were the most successful in history in reducing the number of fatalities, and became a benchmark at European level.
As it became increasingly likely that Zapatero was not going to seek re-election, Rubalcaba became the favourite to succeed him, with Carme Chacón as his only rival in the primaries. Nevertheless, in May 2011, Chacón announced that she was withdrawing from the race, and in June Rubalcaba was chosen unopposed as the PSOE's candidate for Prime Minister at the 2011 general election. On 8 July 2011, he resigned from his duties in the government in order to focus on the election campaign. The PSOE lost the 2011 elections in a landslide, getting the worst results in PSOE's history. Later studies, however, suggested that Zapatero's second government and its handling of the Great Recession turned off potential voters more than Rubalcaba as a potential Prime Minister.