Those were times when politicians, even those who governed, could walk like any other citizen. On November 12, 1912, the President of the Government, José Canalejas, was browsing the windows of bookshops, his great hobby, in the middle of Puerta del Sol. But the freshness and spontaneity of character of a politician who was breaking molds would be his downfall. .
While he was looking at a map of the Balkans (premonition of turbulent times?) that was exposed in the San Martín bookstore, a man approached him and shot him directly in the head. The murderer, the anarchist Manuel Pardiñas, had just taken the life of a leader who was advancing in the secularization of the State and promoting advanced social legislation. With him, perhaps the Spanish 20th century would have been different.
