Javier Pradera

Francisco Javier Pradera Gortázar (28 April 1934 – 20 November 2011) was a Spanish anti-Franco activist, journalist, political analyst and publisher. Pradera was a journalist and columnist for El País, based in Madrid.^[1] Pradera worked as an editorial writer at El País from 1976 to 1986.^[1] His first piece for El País was published on 16 May 1976.^[1] He remained an El País columnist and editorial board member from 1986 until his death in 2011.^[1] Outside of El País, Pradera worked as the director of the publishing firm, Alianza Editorial, and founded the publishing house, Siglo XXI.^[1]

Pradera was born on 28 April 1934 in San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa.^[1] His grandfather, Víctor Pradera Larumbe, a politician who founded the Bloque Nacional, now a defunct conservative party, was killed by anarchists in 1936.^[1] His father, Javier Pradera, was also assassinated just one day after his grandfather.^[1]

Pradera completed his law degree as a cum laude from Complutense University.^[1] He found work within the legal department of the Franco's era Spanish Air Force.^[1] However, Pradera was arrested in February 1956 for taking part in anti-Franco university protests, which cost him his job.^[1] Pradera turned from his family's politically conservative traditions and joined the Communist Party of Spain, which was banned during the Franco era.^[1] However, he left the part in 1964 following the expulsions of Jorge Semprún and Fernando Claudín in a party purge.^[1]

Pradera and Fernando Savater, a Basque philosopher, co-founded the Claves de Razón Práctica magazine in 1990.^[1]

Javier Pradera died on 20 November 2011 at the age of 77. His last column for El País was published on the same day as his death.^[1] The piece, which he titled Al borde del abismo (On the brink of the abyss), warned against a potential interim government for Spain if the European sovereign debt crisis worsened.^[1]

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