Former Spanish Socialist leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, who as interior minister cracked down on armed Basque separatist group ETA, died on Friday aged 67 after suffering a stroke, his family said. Rubalcaba was admitted to a hospital in Majadahonda near Madrid in serious condition on Wednesday night and died Friday, his family and party officials said. "Our comrade Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba has left us," the Socialist Party (PSOE), Spain's oldest party, tweeted.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who succeeded Rubalcaba as party leader in 2014, also took to Twitter to mourn "a statesman (whose) whole life was dedicated to the service of his country". "The end of ETA and great social advances bear his signature," added Sanchez, who Thursday left a European Union summit in Romania early to be with Rubalcaba's family.
Rubalcaba, a Real Madrid fan who in his youth was a top track sprinter, joined the party in 1974 in the dying days of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.