Spain's Felipe Gonzalez: I Enjoy Politics

Spain's best-known and best-liked politician, now the Prime Minister-elect, is universally called by his first name. It thunders from the throats of thousands of supporters at campaign rallies, and it is even heard on the tongues of such European Socialist leaders as West Germany's Willy Brandt and French President François Mitterrand. "Everybody calls me Felipe. Everywhere," acknowledges Felipe González, 40, the handsome, confident leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (P.S.O.E.), flashing his famous smile.

But for all his informality, González cultivated a serious new image for this year's campaign. Sober suits and ties have replaced the rumpled slacks and open collars, and a sleek layered haircut has tamed his once unruly black locks. He has also brought a harddriving, businesslike approach to politics. During the campaign, for example, he directed a skilled and efficient team, and consulted regularly with an eight-man brain trust from Spanish universities. The son of a dairy worker, González was born and raised in Seville. He was the only one of four children to receive a higher education, studying law at the University of Seville. He took a course in labor law at Belgium's Catholic University of Louvain, and was exposed to European leftist politics through books that were banned in his own country. His reading included news about the struggles of the Spanish Communist Party and the expulsion in 1964 of two prominent members, Writer Jorge Semprun and Marxist Economic Theorist Fernando Claudin, for breaches of party discipline. González realized his freedom-loving mind could never fit into so narrow a mold. Says he: "Claudin and Semprun are responsible for my being a Socialist today, not a Communist." González joined the party's youth wing, the Young Socialists, at a time when all political parties were banned and membership could result in a jail term. After earning his degree in 1966, he became a labor lawyer in Seville.

Around that time, Spain's Socialists were also beginning to change. A group of militant young firebrands, including González, who were not afraid to operate openly in the country began to challenge the old leadership, which consisted largely of members exiled in Europe and Latin America. During one confrontation, Socialist Leader Rodolfo Llopis was appalled to find González using his own name in politics. To placate Llopis, González adopted the nom de guerre Isidore. By 1972 González and his colleagues had wrested control of the party from the old guard. Two years later, he was elected secretary-general. Under González's leadership, the P.S.O.E. deftly positioned itself for the post-Franco era, outmaneuvering several other leftist parties to become the leading left-of-center force in Spain.