The death of Josep Piqué has been an unexpected surprise at a historic moment due to the general confusion in international politics. He was precisely a master in the interpretation of national and international political horizons. I have to admit that few people had the precise sharpness to detect the political currents in the external world and in the evolution of internal events. His own political career, his brilliant contributions at certain times, is characterized by knowing how to listen to the future with a unique positional skill. That was his greatest virtue throughout his biography.
His beginnings were in Bandera Roja and the PSUC, which would empower him for an amazing career whose final goal would be liberal conservatism, in which field he would reach the zenith of his successes. A politically migratory process that would run through the CiU to the port of arrival in the Popular Party. He always admired his dizzying ductility, which would lead him to a close relationship of trust with José María Aznar and his government.
The ministries of Industry first and Foreign Affairs later were a recognition of his worth, despite his previous null collaboration with the PP. He would be one of the singular innovations that Aznar introduced in his government without accredited political contribution in his party. A characteristic that Aznar lavished to the detriment of the PP militants; a reality opposed to the usual modes and manners in the history of political parties, particularly in the PSOE, whose paroxysm Pedro Sánchez represents today.
Second, his versatility proved a success when it came to international politics. On the one hand, it would take Aznar to the pinnacle of prominence in international relations: his leading positions at the summits of the European Union, the role assumed in European decisions, the international recognition of Spain in the great decisions of the time, etc. .
Although things did not have the foreseeable effects, the leading role that Spain acquired in the Iraq war and in the triad of decisive rulers of the moment (George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Aznar) is indisputable. Mistakes aside, Spain has never achieved such visibility as in the photo of the Azores and the Ottawa summit. Piqué's contribution to the interlining of this international policy does not admit of doubt.
Finally, his long-demonstrated geopolitical talent in both diplomacy and foresight is worthy of praise. Piqué noticed the horizon that Henry Kissinger designed in his day: China was an inexorable prospect. And Josep Piqué oriented his strategic vision in a convergent direction with Asian interests. A sense of foresight that today no one dares to discuss. China, which is on its way to becoming the epicenter of international interests, and Vladimir Putin's Russia, which some countries underestimated, have crystallized into two decisive poles of world politics. Something that Piqué knew how to see in time.
