Making the change from being the centre of attention of all television, radio and print media to being of interest to none of them is a difficult situation for any public figure, and undoubtedly even more so for a politician who has enjoyed massive attention for many years, ever since, with the help of Spain's private television networks, he was elevated to the summits. And if the ostracism he has suffered is not only in the media, but also from those who raised him up to a heaven which didn't exist, the downward path that must be taken in these conditions is, surely, if one has an insatiable ego, even more bitter. "After God, comes me," said Jose Mourinho, former Real Madrid coach and currently at Tottenham. A phrase that Albert Rivera could make his own, since it fits like a glove.
The founder and former president of Ciudadanos gave free rein to his arrogance on Monday and called a press conference to explain his return to the field of law after his years as a politician. A dependence on a minute of glory on television can be a real necessity once you get used to seeing yourself on the small screen. Rivera, having left the front line following his election defeat, presented himself as the executive chairman of the Malaga law partnership of Martínez-Echevarría, which, according to the business daily Expansión, is ranked number one in Andalusia and 17th in Spain, with a base in Madrid and offices in several European cities in Portugal, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. This is the first case of a significant politician returning to work and calling a press conference to explain it to the public, thanking them and, in passing, presenting his office for those outside Andalusia. In 2018, it had a turnover of about 17 million euros.
The most we had previously seen in this line were a few photographs of Mariano Rajoy leaving the post of Spanish prime minister and rejoining his old job as property registrar in Santa Pola, ex-politicians opening their own offices in a much more discreet way, as was the case with Miquel Roca, or statements from former ministers announcing their return to the law firm where they had worked before making the leap to public life. We've also seen - and this is how Rivera is saving himself - political figures using the revolving door principle to be present on boards of directors or as consultant lobbyists in companies that always reserve a place for favours delivered in the past, as was the case of former Spanish PMs Felipe González and José María Aznar: here the list and the knowing nudges are endless, from numerous former leaders of the PP and the PSOE, through to certain Catalan and Basque nationalists. The next to appear will be those from the orbit of Podemos.
But in any case, Rivera will be welcomed to this day-to-day work, because, probably, there will be no shortage of it for him. Agendas are also useful in this regard.