Too often we make the mistake of recognizing in those who leave successes that we should have applauded in life. I cannot avoid today recognizing in myself that cowardly habit of not having spoken when it was time.
We committed an unforgivable injustice with Juan Carlos. Delighted with the Juan Fernando phenomenon, to which I do not deny an iota of his merit and his successes, we were unable to recognize the extraordinary role that Juan Carlos played in those previous years, in which the PSOE laid the foundations for the unappealable success we had in the 2007 local and regional elections.
We committed the injustice of not recognizing and publicly applauding his enormous generosity. When the work done in the Canary Islands and the national wave foreshadowed an exceptional result for the PSC-PSOE, he had the gallantry to step aside and place the one he considered the best at the head of our project, settling for a secondary position.
And we were unfair again when we did not value his last sacrifice as he deserved: resigning halfway through his term so as not to become an obstacle. He ended the two-headedness in a radical way: resigning from his role as secretary general and calling an extraordinary congress to cede the organic leadership to the one who recognized his social and institutional leadership.
That is the memory I treasure of Juan Carlos: his enormous generosity. A generosity that he not only showed in the big issues, he practiced it daily with his availability for any colleague.
He was, until now, the last secretary general deeply in love with the party. I would prefer that my words not be interpreted as criticism of any of his successors, but I am willing to take the risk, because I do not want to continue adding injustices and Juan Carlos deserves to have his passion for the party recognized.
Other colleagues feel more comfortable with intellectual work or in institutions. Juan Carlos, who more than covered those other areas, added that passion for the party, for its organic life, for its internal balances, for the people who make it up.
Perhaps a certain cowardice, a certain fear that publicly recognizing the value of the work done by Juan Carlos might seem a detriment to his successor, limited me to recognizing those merits in some of the conversations we had, after his incorporation into the Court of Auditors.
Today I repair that injustice in the part that corresponds to me.
Farewell, Boss.
Carlos Espino Angulo, socialist militant
