For 13 years, Javier Solana (Madrid, 1942) was the only minister who was part of all Felipe González's cabinets. Upon his return from the United States, he joined a clandestine PSOE in 1964; he was at the Suresnes congress in 1974, and in 1976, already in Madrid after Franco's death, he was elected secretary of party studies and programs. In 1977 he came to Congress as a deputy, and five years later the general elections of October 28, 1982 took place, which are 40 years old today, with an overwhelming victory for the PSOE.
Felipe González says that that night he was overwhelmed by responsibility, but not scared. How did you experience it?
I was happy. When we found out the electoral result we were at the Palace. Before, we already had data that they were going to be very good results. Of course, I also had a certain degree of concern about what was coming our way. But I knew we had the energy and common sense to get it right, and we did.
González appointed him Minister of Culture (1982-1988), then spokesman (1985-1988), Minister of Education (1988-1992) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1992-1995). Which Spain took over in 1982?
The Spain we received already had a Constitution, had already developed an important part of its political and economic transformation. But there was still a need to complete a democratization process. Above all, make a country with a vision of a leftist government. It was the first time that there had been a leftist government in Spain since the Republic.
A stage of lights opened. But were there also shadows?
Not everything was perfect. The objectives were very clear, and not all of them were achieved. Not everything you want can be done, but a good part has been done.
Spain opened up to Europe and also to NATO.
Many things were done in international politics. We arrived at the government on December 3, and on January 5 I was on my way to Cuba, from Mexico, to meet with Fidel Castro. It was the new government's first contact with Castro, to see how to manage the relationship between Cuba and Spain. He entered the European community; Israel was recognized, with which Spain had no relations. It was a delicate operation, because we were the last European country to abandon the unilateral relationship with the Palestinian people, and we recognized both. It was very exciting, and there was a certain danger that some Islamist branch might do something crazy. But it went well. I accompanied González in that signing with Shimon Peres.
They also suffered very hard years under the leadership of ETA.
We suffer a lot. I went to the Hipercor attack. I will never forget the murdered comrades, some of my friends. It was terrible, but later another socialist government ended ETA.
The paradox was the trajectory of that "NATO, not from the start" of the PSOE, to your becoming secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance between 1995 and 1999. An exercise in realism?
It was never in our mind that it would be like this, they asked us. The position was vacant and without further explanation he called me Bill Clinton to tell me that he wanted him to be the next secretary general of NATO. I asked him if he knew who he was talking to, that he had a career behind him and that when he found out, the US Senate was going to cry to heaven. And he answered me: “But what do you think, that I don't know very well who you are? I have the CIA files! So don't worry, I know very well who you are!"
At the NATO summit in Madrid in June, many world leaders were surprised to see him receiving them at the gates of the Prado Museum, whose board of trustees he chairs, in addition to presiding over EsadeGeo or belonging to the board of trustees of the Fundación la Caixa.
Yes, I knew almost all of them, because I lived international politics for many years. I knew Joe Biden very well when he was a senator, then a vice president, and then later. And I saw him here when he came to Madrid.
He was a privileged witness of the transition, the Moncloa pacts, the 1978 Constitution. Do you miss today that capacity for understanding and agreement between different people?
Yes. But that was a very different situation from now. We were coming out of a dictatorship. The need and the will to speak was very clear, I'm not saying among everyone, but among almost everyone. Today we have more than 40 years of democracy, we have been through many things, we have had different governments. Today's situation has nothing to do with what happened then. But it's always good when people talk to each other. You always have to have a vocation to convince, talk, try to meet at a point that can be feasible for everyone and be able to continue walking together.
The PSOE obtained on 28-O more than 10 million votes and 202 seats. Pedro Sánchez believes that more than a victory for the PSOE, it was a victory for the people.
Yes. It was a victory, of course, beyond the electoral frontier of the PSOE. There was movement much further and something meant the first time that a party that had been in total opposition during the dictatorship came to power. All previous governments had had some remnants of the dictatorship, from Adolfo Suárez to Rodolfo Martín Villa. This government was the first to arrive without any contact with the dictatorship. We had higher support than it would have been in a normal situation.
Has the citizenry lost the connection with politics that it had at that time?
Something has been lost, but it is also normal. I insist again: we were living unique moments. I was 40 years old, I had lived in hiding, my brother had been in prison, we had collective experiences that were very different from those of previous governments and, on the contrary, very close to many people who did not feel like they belonged to the PSOE. rather, they believed that it was time for a younger, left-wing government with a reformist program to arrive.
Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the current political scenario?
I am optimistic. We must have an optimistic attitude towards the times to come, no matter how complex they may appear. If you go with a pessimistic mindset, you've already lost. You always have to have a fundamentally optimistic attitude to life, knowing what the problems are.
And in the case of Catalonia?
Also. Now I spend a good part of my time and I am very happy in Catalonia. Which does not mean that Catalonia does not have some problems that exploded a few years ago in a way that, in my opinion, was wrong.
