José María de Areilza, the lost reformer of the Transition

Abstract

José María de Areilza (1909-1998) II Marquis Santa Rosa del Río and Consort Count of Motrico, was one of the most relevant personalities in 20th century Spanish politics. He evolved from close collaboration with Franco’s dictatorship to open dissidence. He positioned himself as a leading reformer, during the late Franco regime and the democratic transition. Many predictions were then made regarding his projection in public life, but all were truncated for a character who ended up relegated to an eternal background. During the years of Spanish political change, Areilza acted from different spheres: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the first government of the monarchy, the negotiations to structure and lead the space of the political center, the promotion of an alternative of «civilized right» of liberal disposition, and a parliamentary performance in search of a concentration government. All his movements were marked by the common objective of becoming Prime Minister, as many had expected. But those predictions never came true. This paper is intended to analyze the trajectory of José María de Areilza during the democratic transition so as to understand his ideas and movements as well as the reasons that caused him to be left behind in the political reality of the time, a victim of his own intrigues and ambitions, with a high conception of himself and his possibilities as the great reformer lost during the Transition.