Victoria Prego dies at 75, journalistic reference of the Transition

The journalist, one of the great references and even a symbol of the Transition, who portrayed the change from dictatorship to Democracy like no one else, has died at the age of 75, according to sources from the Madrid Press Association (APM). , which he presided from November 20, 2015 to November 19, 2019.

The Board of Directors of the APM wanted to express its “deep sadness at the irreparable loss” and has conveyed its deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues, in addition to thanking “her total dedication, professionalism and good work” as president of the APM. Association. In 2013, Victoria Prego received the honorary award of the Madrid Press Association. In 2016 he was awarded the Luca de Tena Award, and in 2018 the National Television Award for lifetime achievement. That same year she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid.

The journalist died this morning in Madrid at the age of 75. A teacher of journalists, with a very personal style and exemplary rigor, almost legendary today, she served as a columnist and political analyst and her documentary projects on the recent history of Spain, which she directed and presented, are essential gems to understand the Transition in the mouth of Their protagonists.

Prego was one of the most unanimously respected and recognized information professionals in our country. Almost 30 years ago, in 1995, Plaza & Janés published their book This is how the Transition was made. On the cover, by editorial – and commercial – decision, the author’s name appeared in characters considerably larger than the title of the work. One day, at school, the friend of one of her children joked about it: “I understand that a certain Transition has written a book about your mother…”. She rejected the title of unofficial chronicler of the political change that she earned since she put voice, face and knowledge to the series that between 1987 and 1992 she made with Elías Andrés for Spanish Television.

The Transition remained an inescapable document, faithful to the events and tied to the testimonies of its protagonists, to know what happened in those decisive years. But Prego always wanted to make it clear that she was, above all, a journalist.

The interview was one of the journalistic genres that Prego cultivated the most and best, before and after between 1983 and 1984 he presented and directed Spanish people, a weekly one-hour program attended by the main leaders from all areas of Spanish society. The last of them was the then President of the Government, Felipe González, to whom later, in 1986 and 1987, he conducted half a dozen live interviews for TVE.

Postwar Madrid

Born in Madrid in 1948, Victoria Prego studied Political Sciences and Journalism. She started at El Alcázar and Informaciones and at Agencia Efe, she joined TVE in 1974 (half a century ago) as an editor for Internacional. Between 1977 and 1979 she held the London correspondent where the first of the two children she had with her husband was born, Elías Andrés. In 1980, upon returning to Madrid, the then director of TVE’s Information Services, Iñaki Gabilondo, commissioned him to make, together with Joaquin Arozamena a brief nightly news program, Al Cierre, the seed of what would eventually be the third edition of the Telediario. As part of that editorial team, he experienced the coup attempt of February 23, 1981 from the Prado del Rey studios.

In 1984 he made the jump to the airwaves and took charge of Talking Newspaper at 2 p.m. on National Radio of Spain. “Before I had never done radio, but once you do television you develop many instincts and mechanisms that help you function in other media,” Prego explained. “I like all media. They all have a satisfactory and generous means of expression. On TV, a gesture saves you many inflections. The radio gives you the infinite power of voice and silences.”

Between 1986 and 1987 he directed and presented on TVE-1 the program Debate, a weekly, monographic broadcast in which, unlike most current formats, the focus was not on “firewood and spectacle,” the journalist recalled, but rather on information and in-depth analysis. However, it was in one of those Debates where the historic scuffle took place between the general secretary of UGT, Nicolás Redondo, and the Minister of Economy, Carlos Solchaga, which marked the beginning of the end of the alliance between the socialist union and the PSOE. . A rupture that would culminate in the general strike of December 14, 1988.

The transition

In 1987, I begged the director of RTVE, Pilar Miró, to release her from live and allow her to join as deputy director of a documentary project on the Transition that Elías Andrés had just presented to the Public Entity. Five years of hard work began. They had the richness of the Spanish Television archive, but also its gaps, which had to be covered through long and meticulous archiving work that forced them, before the Internet broke down barriers and borders, to search for material throughout Europe. It was the first time that a history of the Transition was made in these terms, told in the first person by its protagonists, and reconstructing the atmosphere of the time to offer the most complete degree of understanding possible of the sensations, fears and hopes. of the Spaniards in the crucial transition from dictatorship to democracy. Once the series was finished, it took more than two years for TVE to premiere it, on a Sunday night in July 1995 on La 2. Despite the nighttimeThe Transition was a success and won numerous awards. For her, the Transition was a turning point that marked her image and her career.

In 1994, ahead of the 20th anniversary of Franco’s death, he wrote the script for the Carlos Estévez documentary for Antena 3. This is how Franco died, who revealed the truth about the illness and death of the dictator at the hands of his own doctors. The journalist then experienced something that she had already experienced while collecting testimonies to The transition: that they told him that “yes, I’m going to tell you.” “With that I already felt paid,” she admitted. Franco won the silver medal for historical documentaries at the New York Television Festival.

Prego embarked on new audiovisual projects before joining the newspaper El Mundo in 2000 as deputy director, a position she held until 2015. Her first article was a long chronicle of the second inauguration of José María Aznar. In September 2016 he accompanied Casimiro García-Abadillo in the creation of a new newspaper, The Independent, where he has continued to sign his articles as long as his health has allowed him to do so.