Miguel Ángel Revilla got up this Thursday, July 6, at 6:45 a.m., like every day. But it is not just any day: it is his last day in the Presidency of Cantabria and possibly the last day in the political front line of a career of more than 40 years at the helm of the PRC. This must be repeated because he is Revilla, a political animal that politics enters through his feet and does not stop 24/7 until he reaches the top of his head: his last day.
He had milk for breakfast with a sobao, he He has said goodbye to the family and climbed into his private car, he has traveled from Astillero to Santander to end up entering through the door of his office as in the last eight years before 8:00 a.m. Then he went down to the street, where a swarm of journalists were waiting for him, he crossed the road and ordered a coffee at the La Jara bar, exactly 15 meters from the Cantabrian Government gate on Peña Herbosa street.
It is 8:50 am, 10 minutes before the informal act of transferring power to her successor, the ‘popular’ María José Sáenz de Buruaga. She hasn’t arrived yet, but the president of the College of Physicians of Cantabria, Javier Hernández de Sande, has, who orders another coffee and they both sit at a high table on the sidewalk. Revilla already has his cigar lit, his hand trembles a little when he takes the teaspoon, he is chatting with the college president. At all times he is circumspect. As he is an image professional, he acts as if there were not around thirty people waiting for him to finish his drink.
Sáenz de Buruaga arrives on time with a huge smile, Revilla invites him to a coffee –I never I say no to a coffee. You are going to invite me? Well, he thanks himself– and he joins the table. The collegiate president has disappeared and his place is occupied by Paula Fernández, a close associate of Revilla and acting Minister of the Presidency. The photographers seem to occupy a burladero and take hundreds of images. The new president of Cantabria, in the center, speaks with one and the other. Revilla always responds, but he doesn’t seem encouraged
If it were a normal day, he would have read the press and dispatched the day’s agenda. His collaborators would have selected the most pressing issues for him and he would have examined and internalized them. Yes, he reads documents and yes, he is methodical; and no, he never eats in the office, but in a bar on a nearby street. It’s usually rare to see him lose his composure, but getting excited gets excited. Those who know him believe that his worst moment was 11M. That day, Revilla, who when he wants takes on the stony face of a statue from Easter Island, began to cry.
If it had been a day like any other day, in the afternoon he would have returned to his office , where he usually stays until 8:00 p.m. if he does not have an agenda. During the pandemic he was there and in the middle of the afternoon he would go outside from the top floor and take walks on the roof of the building, back and forth and then back. That during the pandemic. On an afternoon full of normality, those would be his plans, unless he has to go to Madrid to a television set or there is a public commitment. At 80 years old, he likes to boast that he endures the pull and that he endures like nothing from 8:00 to 20:00. In campaign, even more hours. His collaborators attest to this
He has been saying for several days that he is impatient to be evicted from the office, that he feels like a squatter. This Thursday he has been evicted, following his analogy. Accompanied by María José Sáenz de Buruaga and Paula Fernández, he has gone up to the sixth floor of the Presidency of the Government and there he has presented his successor with his new domains. There is no personal trace of his passing, something to which he has dedicated a week. In fact, he says that he has rented a garage where he has stored about 300 dedicated books, 400 cachavas and ‘sticks’ that they have given him, 200 paintings from all over Spain with his portrait and that now he does not know where to place He says that there are several tons, but Revilla has always been a bit exaggerated.
Although it is not the first time that he has left the Presidency –in 2011 he collected his belongings by handing over the baton to the also ‘popular’ Ignacio Diego–, He knows that this time he is serious. There’s no turning back. He will stop leading the party, which will choose a successor, and gradually leave the political front line. He will not be president again. He will not be a parliamentary spokesman either, although he will occupy the office in the Chamber that Buruaga precisely occupied, that of head of the opposition: I have already told him to leave his office as I leave mine to her, although he wins with the change. He will dedicate himself to his things: fishing and playing cards. But don’t be fooled: he won’t stop.Now he announces that he will promote his books more, and will travel around Spain and abroad, something that he has not been able to do as he would have liked these years.
I have told him to leave it to me as I have left this one, that hasn’t done it yet. He said that he has given the order right now so that they can leave it with me and be able to put my things in: my kidney pills, my toothbrush, my hairspray, my hair comb… I have a pot because my hair stands out like that and it is not worth using a comb, has joked who has occupied for 16 years -in two periods of eight- the main office of Peña Herbosa. He has never liked to be timid in details
The office in question has two dark office desks. It is nothing sumptuous. There are views of the street, a bookcase, a small table and a couple of paintings. The photographers leave Buruaga and Revilla alone for a few minutes, sitting on a sofa. 20 minutes later, they both come out and are faced with a wall of microphones. The new president does not want to speak and leaves. She knows that it’s not her time for her.
–This is for you –she tells him.
* 100025* –Aren’t you going to declare anything? –asks Revilla.
–Nothing! Me, tomorrow.
–Well, go now so you don’t hear!
Moment of political and personal declaration: Politics is a matter of cycles, like life; we are here passing through and we have to adjust to a new life: I am leaving very happy with how I am leaving the region; the great historical claims are channeled; proud of my collaborators; we have favored the succession with complete tranquility; we have made a new policy that I would like to see come to fruition in Spain: good sense and coherence; The president has me at her disposal. She will have no impediment to do what she does not want and what she does not want is to agree with Vox, she has added. I free myself from an overwhelming and terrible job, which is to be here 24 hours a day. That is her last statement.
They say that Revilla is very confident, but that he has received so many disappointments that he already has more armor than a prehistoric animal. He now he retires, but he doesn’t leave immediately. He will continue to be seen presenting books and traveling through Spain and abroad, to all those places that have invited him and to which he could not go for obvious reasons. He will also maintain his seat as deputy in the Parliament of Cantabria, of which he has been a part since the first legislature. And there are eleven, no less. At home he will stop a little because he cannot stop. But at home they are used to it
he will continue having dinner soon, he who has avoided official meals and says goodbye to the day eating fruit. He will go to bed early like the day before and the day after. This July 6th he will not be in his office in the afternoon. He plans to go through the party and Parliament
When he leaves the one outside his office until this very Thursday, he says goodbye to the employees on the sixth floor of the government building. Someone gets excited and he scolds him: You’re not going to cry now! Then the elevator arrives and Miguel Ángel Revilla disappears into the guts of the building towards the parking lot, where his car is.
It is 9.46 in the morning. Curtain.
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