Charlemagne: Manuel Fraga

摘要

He Was a minister under Franco. Yet on October 21st he won re-election as premier of Galicia, Spain's north-western region, for his fourth term in a row. "No one chooses the period in which he lives or the circumstances in which he operates," says Manuel Fraga, still, at 78, giving hints of the energy that often had him described as a volcano. "One only decides what one can try to do with them, and I tried more than most."rnHe did. As minister for tourism and information in the mid-1960s, Mr Fraga set afoot the only serious attempt to reform the rigid Francoist state from within. He failed. But the attempt gave Spaniards a glimpse of the changes to come. "Con Fraga hasta la braga" (with Fraga down to the knickers) ran a catch-phrase coined as he began to dismantle the censorship of films.