Galicia bids farewell to Xosé Manuel Beiras with more than twenty minutes of applause: "You were the president we deserve and never had"

Galicia bid farewell this Friday to Xosé Manuel Beiras with an ovation of more than twenty minutes. Hundreds of people accompanied the departure of his coffin from the Museo do Pobo Galego, in Santiago, amidst tears and shouts of "Beiras, friend, Galicia is with you". His family and colleagues such as Martiño Noriega and Antón Sánchez carried the coffin to the hearse that would take him to the Boisaca cemetery.

The historic nationalist leader, who died on Thursday at the age of 90 in his home in Brión, received a tribute that overflowed the auditorium and forced many attendees to follow it from the cloister and the garden. On the coffin, covered with the Galician flag with the coat of arms of Castelao, rested his characteristic brown hat. Noriega, a friend and fellow militant, dedicated a few words to him that captured the feeling of many present. "You were the president we deserved and never had".

The teacher and the friend

Ana Pontón attended "with a heavy heart". The national spokesperson for the BNG remembered someone who had marked the history of Galicia and several generations, including her own. She highlighted his ability to connect with people and wanted to dwell on his "great heart and humanity", along with his work as a professor and intellectual.

His son Ricardo Beiras García-Sabell spoke on behalf of the family and brought the audience closer to a father who was comfortable among the people of the villages and taverns, deeply knew Galician geography, and defended the disadvantaged. There were also laughs when he recalled how vain he was and the recognizable image he had built with Aurichu Pereira, his partner.

Throughout the day, former students, professors, booksellers, waiters, and militants came. The recognition also brought together representatives of different political forces, from former socialist presidents Emilio Pérez Touriño and Fernando González Laxe to the Minister of Culture, José López Campos, and the general secretary of the Galician PP, Paula Prado.

The mayor of Santiago, Goretti Sanmartín, vindicated the need to disseminate his work, after having proposed granting him the Gold Medal of the city. Abel Caballero asked the Xunta to rectify and declare a day of mourning, while the musician and writer Antón Reixa, in tears, demanded a place for Beiras in the Pantheon of Illustrious Galicians. These were requests for recognition for a figure who had accompanied Galician political and cultural life for decades.

The voice that challenged Fraga and Feijóo

Professor of Economics at the University of Santiago, Beiras published in 1972 'O atraso económico de Galicia', a reference work for studying the causes of his land's backwardness. He had participated in the founding of the Galician Socialist Party in 1963 and the BNG in 1982. Under his leadership, the Bloque reached 18 deputies in 1997 and became the second force in the Galician Parliament, ahead of the socialists.

His parliamentary intensity left images that continue to be part of Galicia's political memory. In 1993, he protested shoe in hand against the reform that raised the electoral threshold for representation from 3% to 5%. In April 2013, he hit Alberto Núñez Feijóo's seat desk with his hand, during a debate about his photographs with Marcial Dorado, after the then-president mockingly alluded to that episode and his emotion in a previous session.

By then, Beiras had left the BNG and founded Anova, from where he promoted alliances with other left-wing forces. In 2024, he again supported the Bloque's candidacy led by Ana Pontón, in a political rapprochement after years of separation. This Friday, colleagues from those different stages shared the farewell.

Music also had an intimate place in the tribute. Flutist Luis Soto performed Debussy and 'Alfonsina y el mar', the song Beiras used to play on the piano in memory of Aurichu. Then the Galician anthem played, and as the coffin left, bagpipes performed the march of the Old Kingdom of Galicia. The procession departed for Boisaca, where his partner and his friend Isaac Díaz Pardo rest.