Anyone who chatted with her for the first time couldn’t help but notice her voice. Because Victoria Prego’s voice was that of the transition. That of the documentaries that included in great detail and the utmost rigor what happened in Spain since Franco’s death on November 20, 1975. The journalist Victoria Prego died this morning at the age of 75, as reported by El Independiente, the newspaper in which she currently served as assistant to the director, Casimiro García Abadillo.
Prego’s professional career began on Spanish Television at a time when there was still no competition and the audiences were massive. There were also no so-called trash TV programs, so journalism shone on the screen and Victoria Prego had the opportunity to do good journalism, interviewing people like Adolfo Suárez in 1995 and making headlines. Suárez told her, for example, that in the process of drafting the Constitution a referendum on the monarchy was proposed, but she ruled it out because she was afraid of losing it.
In the 80s, the journalist presented the Spanish interview program, which featured the protagonists of the political life of the moment. But the most memorable thing about Prego’s stay on the public television network was her series of documentaries about the transition, made with her husband, Elías Andrés, an x-ray of the recent history of Spain, which was made between 1987 and 1992 and was broadcast in 1995. Now it is one of the jewels of the RTVE newspaper archive.
Prego was born in Madrid in 1948. He studied Journalism and Political Science and after working for the EFE agency, he joined TVE and worked as a correspondent in London. In addition to dedicating himself to television, he did radio and wrote several books, Thus the Transition was Made, Presidents and Dictionary of the Transition (1999). In 2000, he joined El Mundo, directed by Pedro J. Ramírez.
His chronicles were essential reading to get an idea of ??the political situation at the time, because Prego worked in the old way, contrasting even the smallest detail of the information. Furthermore, she was a great colleague, always attentive and charming with the rest of the journalists who were part of the team.
The board of directors of the APM, of which Prego was president, expressed this morning its “deep sadness at the irreparable loss” and has conveyed its condolences to family, friends and colleagues, in addition to thanking “their total dedication, professionalism and good do” as president of the association.
