Former Spanish vice president and Socialist party leader dies

The former Spanish vice president, interior minister and leader of the Socialist party, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, died on Friday in Madrid after suffering a stroke on Wednesday.

First entering politics in the mid-1970s, Pérez Rubalcaba went on to become a major figure in the Socialist party, and in the Spanish political scene in general.

In a political career spanning five terms, he was a key figure in negotiating Catalonia's 2006 statute of autonomy and played a major role in the fight against Basque terrorist group, ETA.

Born in Solares, in Cantabria, in 1951, Pérez Rubalcaba was married but had no children. He was aged 67 when he died in the Puerta de Hierro hospital just outside Madrid.