JES, an ode to caste

JES was the initials we used to refer to José Enrique Serrano, who died a few days ago in Madrid. Probably unknown to the general public, everyone who is or has ever been involved in politics knew perfectly well who he was. I think I'm not exaggerating when I say, furthermore, that the vast majority of those who knew him admired and respected him deeply. The minute of silence in Congress for his death was one of the few unanimous events you'll see in this term. He had the State in his head and knew our country's institutions like few others: he knew what they're made of, their intricacies, and the best product for their care.

Personally, he was an austere but elegant man, even presumptuous, I would say, entertaining, cultured, and discreet (he takes countless secrets about Spanish politics of recent decades to the grave, from Catalonia to Article 135 of the Constitution, including ETA). With progressive ideas and extremely tolerant, as only those who use ideology not as a moral refuge but as a guiding principle can be, listening to him argue confirmed what I learned some time ago: that moderation is the virtue of the strong.

A jurist by training, he was an anti-Franco student and professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, Narcís Serra's right-hand man at the Ministry of Defense and as Vice President of the Government, Director of the Cabinet under Felipe González, and later throughout Zapatero's presidency. He assisted Joaquín Almunia when he was Secretary General of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) and briefly under Pedro Sánchez, very early on. In recent years, he served as a trustee and vice president of the Felipe González Foundation.

I had the privilege of working with him this past decade, and my only regret is not having met him sooner: not only did you learn a lot from him, but you also learned to think differently. And yet I argued a lot with him because we necessarily saw many very different things. I, Catalan, heterodox, and from another generation, and he, a Castilian with the State on his shoulders.

JES was not a fearsome negotiator because of his attitude, but because of his solidity; none of his arguments were trivial.

I remember an anecdote he found very funny and always told about the time I had the intention of proposing and implementing a rather daring reform, but one I was very convinced of. They told me: "Okay, go ahead, but only if JES and Rubalcaba agree." Aware of the challenge, I prepared myself and convinced three brilliant lawyer friends that my position was the right one and that we should go to a dinner to defend it. We hadn't even sat down at the table for the first course when the back-and-forth between JES and Rubalcaba was such that the three lawyers changed positions and looked at me as if I were a crazy Rio girl and had never been on my side. It took them ten minutes for the complete KO. I think the Ciudadanos negotiators of the agreement they reached with the PSOE in 2016 could relate similar experiences. That's why, whenever he occasionally agreed with me, it filled me with a sense of placid happiness.

JES wasn't a fearsome negotiator for his attitude, but for his solidity. None of his arguments were gratuitous or banal. Never. But he presented them with cordiality and a sense of humor. We often teased each other: he teased me about my shoes, which were never extravagant enough, and I teased him about his obsession with the Official State Gazette (BOE). During the pandemic, he spent a few hours each day reading it and compiling a report on everything that seemed inappropriate; the last time we spoke about it, he had written 1,400 pages.

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JES would fit the profile of what Podemos and Co. called the caste. That's what we had to put an end to for Spain to be better. A few years later, and with one government in place, I think I'm driven not only by affection but also by reasoning to miss men of the caste like José Enrique. Those who prefer to know before opine, act before declaim, calm before insult, negotiate before polarize. Given what I've seen, I honestly believe he was more in tune with the only commitment that was radical to him: democracy.

Politically, I'm heartbroken by the void left by the ever-decreasing number of wise men of state to serve as a guide. On a personal level, too, I'm going to miss him greatly… I'm left with no one to decide the best translation of the word " insofferenza." What consoles me, however, is that he's spared the present embarrassment and that which is to come.