This week Spain has seen the death of one of the most important political figures in the country’s history, Manuel Fraga. The founder president of the Partido Popular died of respiratory complications on 15th January at the age of 89 at his home in Madrid. He was surrounded by his close family: his five children and some of his 11 brothers and sisters.

Fraga was a major figure on the Spanish political scene both in dictatorship and democracy, as well as being a key player in the Transition and co-author of the current Constitution.

On Monday politicians stressed Fraga’s ability to adapt to the changing times although some said that it was impossible to ignore the fact that he had participated in the Franco regime.

Born in Villalba (Galicia), Fraga was known more for his vehement character which overshadowed his culture and discipline. He was referred to by most as Don Manuel and only consented to a few close friends addressing him with ‘tú’.

The image of Fraga that sticks in most Spaniards’ minds is the widely published photograph of him emerging from the sea in Palomares, Almeria, in the company of the US ambassador in March 1966. At the time Fraga was Franco’s Minister for Information and Tourism, a post he held between 1962 and 1969, and this role involved proving to the world that the Almeria waters were safe to swim in. In January that year two US planes, a B52 and a KC-135, had crashed in the air off the Almeria coastline. As a result seven crew members lost their lives and four hydrogen bombs packed with plutonium fell into the waters off Palomares. Franco’s official broadcasting service played the issue down, Minister Fraga went for a dip and fears of dangerous radiation were quelled. It was only later that it was revealed that the four bombs, which failed to detonate, had 300 times the destructive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

During his time as minister Fraga passed the first Press Law, which did away with pre-censorship, and created the network of ‘Paradores’. By that time he was anxious to lead the way towards the end of the dictatorship, but the regime sent him to London as Spanish Ambassador. He maintained his contacts with Madrid, however, and in 1974 founded the firm Godsa, a platform he used to design what he believed to be the route map to political reform in Spain. “Then (during the dictatorship) we only had two choices: to go into exile or to try to improve things”, he said later in an interview in order to explain his past.

With Franco on his death bed on November 19th 1975, Fraga returned to Madrid, went straight to the hospital and then set about his plans for reform. Carlos Arias Navarro succeeded Franco as head of government and Fraga was his Deputy and Minister in 1975 and 76. Then the King chose Adolfo Suárez to lead the Transition, but it was Fraga who made the first contact with the opposition, holding meetings with Enrique Múgica and Felipe González.

In 1976 he founded Reforma Democrática, a party that later became the Alianza Popular, formed by a group of Franco’s ministers. This scared off the more centre-leaning politicians who joined Suárez’s UCD. AP provided the route for Francoists to take part in democracy.

As right-wing leader Fraga took part in drawing up the new Constitution in 1978, but he never became Prime Minister. He gave up trying in 1987 and stood in the European elections. His design to unite all the centre-right parties and re-found the AP as the Partido Popular in February 1989 did lead the way to an eventual electoral triumph over the Socialists. That same year he left the party in the hands of José María Aznar who won the elections in 1996.

Some say that Fraga could defend both sides of an argument with the same passion. During the drawing up of the Constitution he had fiercely objected to the chapter regarding the autonomy of the Spanish regions. However his ideas had clearly changed by 1990 when he became president of the Xunta de Galicia, a post he held until 2005. He reintroduced the Gallego language of his childhood to all official acts and set about modernising his homeland, leaving a network of advanced motorways and infrastructure. He was 83 years old when he ended his fourth term of office.

The blackest moment of his reign at the Xunta was the Prestige crisis, when Fraga was heavily criticised for his management of the environmental disaster. In the next regional election he lost his absolute majority.

Fraga may have retired as a Professor of Constitutional Law at 65 but he never stepped down from politics. After leaving the Xunta he joined Spain’s upper house, the Senado, and continued attending the PP’s executive meetings. It wasn’t until last September that he gave up his seat as Senator due to poor health. His last message to Prime Minister and fellow ‘Gallego’ Mariano Rajoy was delivered at last weekend’s PP conference in Malaga. “Go on with your centrist and reformist project and don’t be swayed by extremists”.

Funeral

The family had wanted a quiet farewell, refusing the offer to set up a chapel of rest open to the public. However on Monday politicians of all colours as well as the King and Queen visited the flat in Madrid to pay their last respects. His body was then transported to Galicia where he was buried on Tuesday alongside his wife in the village of Perbes.