Friendship with Pedro Solbes is one of those gifts that, sometimes, in a stroke of luck, gives you life. Friend of his friends, curious economist, exemplary civil servant, public servant and statesman. This will be talked about a lot these days, and rightly so.
His vital purpose, even commitment, was to do things well and contribute to the common good. And for this he always understood that there was not only one way and that even those who did not think like him could have the point of reason for him. And it was worth spending time searching for consensus, building bridges, understanding and empathy understood as a sincere exercise. A complete democrat.
One of the great secrets of Pedro Solbes was how he approached problems. He analyzed them, took them apart, made them small, he intimately understood their different parts, and then, with uncommon common sense, he approached possible solutions trying to integrate different points of view.
And what had no solution was not a problem. One day, a minister told him that he had a big problem because, to close his budget, he needed a huge amount of money. Solbes, with his characteristic phlegm, looked at him and said: “Then this is not a problem. It would be a problem if you needed five or ten million, because then we would have had to discuss where we got it from. But this is an impossible amount. And, therefore, there is no problem”. Common sense.
We will miss a convinced European who, even his political rivals have always recognized for his good intentions, elegance, intelligence and integrity.
He always said that he had been very lucky in life, surely without realizing that, with his bonhomie, sarcastic humor, affability, dedication and dedication to public affairs, and commitment to equality, we were the lucky ones around him. Rest in peace.
David Vegara is former Secretary of State for the Economy; Carlos Ocaña, former Secretary of State for the Treasury; and Juana Lázaro, former undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy and Finance
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