Santiago Carrillo
Santiago Carrillo
The Eurocommunist architect who lit a cigarette at gunpoint
23 February 1981: 200 Civil Guards under Lt. Col. Tejero storm the Spanish parliament, firing submachine guns. As every deputy dives for cover, 66-year-old Santiago Carrillo remains seated, takes out a cigarette, and calmly lights it.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain (1960–1982), Carrillo was a key architect of Eurocommunism alongside Berlinguer and Marchais. Breaking with Moscow after the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, he argued in Eurocommunism and the State (1977) for a parliamentary path to socialism and guided Spain's peaceful democratic transition after Franco's death.
Career timeline
- 1930Begins at the Socialist Youth newspaper Renovación
- 1934Elected General Secretary of the Socialist Youth of Spain
- 1934–1936Imprisoned for participation in the 1934 revolutionary uprising
- 1936.11Joins the PCE; Councillor for Public Order, Madrid Defence Council
- 1937Candidate member of the PCE Political Bureau
- 1939–197638-year exile during the Franco dictatorship
- 1946–1947Minister without portfolio, Republican government-in-exile
- 1960Succeeds Dolores Ibárruri as PCE General Secretary
- 1968Opposes Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia; breaks with Moscow
- 1976Returns secretly disguised in a wig; arrested and released
- 1977.03Launches Eurocommunism with Berlinguer and Marchais in Madrid
- 1977–1986Member of Congress of Deputies for Madrid
- 1981.02.2323-F coup — remains seated, lights cigarette as gunmen fire
- 1982Resigns as PCE General Secretary after electoral defeat
- 1985Expelled from PCE; forms splinter left party
- 1991Disbands splinter party; declines merger into ruling PSOE