A Europeanist in Transition

A Europeanist in Transition
  • Edition: Jorge Lafuente del Cano 
  • Foreword: Pedro Calvo-Sotelo Ibáñez-Martín
  • Publisher: Ediciones Encuentro
  • Date: Madrid, 2019

'A Europeanist in the Transition' is a careful selection of the speeches and conferences on Europe -most of them unpublished- given by Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, one of the protagonists of the Transition, who always defined himself as a Europeanist. 

The first part of the book ("Spain's entry into Europe") compiles some significant interventions during his period in the front line of politics, mainly during his almost three years as Minister for Relations with the European Communities, during which he was responsible for initiating the negotiation of Spain's accession to the Common Market and for carrying out an intense educational task to bring Europe closer to the Spanish people. Work that he continued during his brief mandate as President of the Government, in which he gave the definitive impulse that allowed his successor to sign the Treaty of Accession of Spain to the EEC in 1986. 

The second part ("Reflections on the European Union") brings together various conferences in which Calvo-Sotelo, outside of active politics, reflects on the reality of the European Union, its problems, its possible solutions and the role of Spain once it is part of the European club. 

The book has been edited as part of the Raíces de Europa collection, which is published in collaboration with the University Institute of European Studies at the CEU San Pablo University, and has the support of the Real Instituto Elcano. A selection of the texts and an introductory study have been carried out by Jorge Lafuente Cano, possibly the historian who best knows Calvo-Sotelo's European politics, after years of research in his archive and interviews with many of his collaborators during the Transition period.

You can read the prologue here. If you wish, you can purchase a copy of the work 'Un europeista en la Transición' in bookshops or through the website of Ediciones Encuentro