The journalist Juan Fernández-Miranda, political correspondent and deputy director of ABC, will present this Tuesday, at the Espacio Fundación Telefónica, his book “Objective: democracy”winner of the Espasa Essay prize. The chronicle, written in the present tense, recounts the nineteen months between the death of dictator Francisco Franco, on November 20, 1975, and the first democratic elections in Spain, on June 15, 1977.
The presentation of the winning work of this prestigious award will take place, once again, in the auditorium of the Espacio Fundación Telefónica, from 7:00 p.m.. Fernández-Miranda will speak with journalists Fernando Jáuregui and José Antonio Zarzalejos on the chronicle of these nineteen months, fundamental in the history of Spain, which passed from the death of the dictator until the celebration of the first free elections after forty years.
The author’s account, revealing and faithful to historical sources, as documented as it is vibrant, details the decisions taken by the virtuous triangle that formed Don Juan Carlos I, Torcuato Fernández-Miranda and Adolfo Suárez and this made possible the successful transition to a democratic system which still endures and which has been an example of evolution for the whole world.
Divided into sixty chapters, the book takes a journey, sometimes day by day, through everything that has happened: the political decisions, the moral dilemmas, the desire for democracy, the iron resistance to change, the deadly traps to dynamite the process, the secrets of the palace, what the street was saying, the distrust of the opposition, what the press thought, what was said in the barracks, what the world thought.
The jury of the Espasa Essay Prize, chaired by Pedro García Barreno and composed of Fernando Rodríguez Lafuente, Leopoldo Abadía, Emilio del Río and Pilar Cortés —representing the publisher—, awarded this prize to “extraordinary work understand the most transcendental period in the contemporary history of Spain.
They also point out that Fernández-Miranda offers “a rigorous analysis of the Spanish transition, focusing on a critical moment: the preparation and celebration of the first democratic elections after the death of Franco in November 1975. With great narrative tension and a agile style, Fernández-Miranda transports us to the decisive months when political decisions and moral dilemmas forged the country’s course toward democracy.
