Rubalcaba and Freddie Starr die on same day
Friday, May 10, 2019 @ 9:56 PM
ON A TRAGIC day for the UK and Spain, former interior minister and government deputy president Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, 67, died in hospital just before 15.30 after a massive stroke on Wednesday evening – just hours after British comedian Freddie Starr passed away at his home in Mijas (Málaga province) aged 76.
Tributes have flooded in for Rubalcaba, who had been in a critical condition at the Puerta del Hierro Hospital in his home town of Majadahonda (Greater Madrid region) since 19.15, where he had undergone emergency surgery to disperse a blood clot in his brain.
Socialist regional presidents, and party leaders at regional level, along with nearly all members of the acting PSOE government had visited him in hospital and been supporting Rubalcaba's family, including his wife Pilar Goya, whom he would have been celebrating 40 years of marriage to this year.
Although the local, regional and European Parliamentary election campaigns officially started on Thursday and many socialist launch events still went ahead in recognition that this was what Rubalcaba would have wanted, the PSOE and all its rival parties, except the far-right Vox, have now shelved all their acts for the next three days as a mark of respect – and because, in the case of many PSOE candidates, it would be too difficult and painful to continue.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com