Son of Adolfo Suárez announces that former PM’s death is “imminent”
Spain’s first democratic premier, who has Alzheimer’s disease, could die within 48 hours
“The end is near.”
With these words, Adolfo Suárez Illana informed the media on Friday that his father, Adolfo Suárez, Spain’s prime minister during the transition to democracy, is in a critical condition and is not likely to survive more than 48 hours.
“It could happen any moment now,” he said, speaking at Madrid’s Clínica Cemtro, where Suárez is hospitalized.
The 81-year-old former statesman was admitted into the center on Monday due to a respiratory infection that the family described as a normal evolution of his disease. Suárez has suffered from Alzheimer’s disease since 2003. Several years ago, his son revealed to the media that the former politician had long since forgotten that he was Spain’s first democratic leader.
Speaking on the verge of tears, Suárez Illana insisted that the end could come at any moment, but that the family has been preparing for this for the last 11 years. He also said that he has informed Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and King Juan Carlos about the state of his father’s health, and thanked the monarch for his role during the Transition, which allowed Suárez to lead the peaceful process from 1977 to 1981.
“Over the last few days,” he told the press, “he has given us more smiles than in perhaps the last few years.” His illness, the former politician’s son continued, has moved very quickly, which meant that an “intellectual relationship” between him and his family was impossible. But, he explained, an emotional relationship remained.
Prime Minister Rajoy sent a message of support to the family from Brussels on Friday. "The family should know that the great majority of the Spanish people are all with them," he said. Not long beforehand, the deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, had also made a statement. Speaking to the press after the weekly Cabinet meeting, she said that the government would be closely watching "the development of the situation over the coming hours."
