Francisco Javier Pradera Gortázar (28 April 1934 – 20 November 2011) was a Spanish anti-Franco activist, journalist, political analyst and publisher. Pradera was a journalist and columnist for El País, based in Madrid.[1] Pradera worked as an editorial writer at El País from 1976 to 1986.[1] His first piece for El País was published on 16 May 1976.[1] He remained an El País columnist and editorial board member from 1986 until his death in 2011.[1] Outside of El País, Pradera worked as the director of the publishing firm, Alianza Editorial, and founded the publishing house, Siglo XXI.[1]
Pradera was born on 28 April 1934 in San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa.[1] His grandfather, Víctor Pradera Larumbe, a politician who founded the Bloque Nacional, now a defunct conservative party, was killed by anarchists in 1936.[1] His father, Javier Pradera, was also assassinated just one day after his grandfather.[1]
Pradera completed his law degree as a cum laude from Complutense University.[1] He found work within the legal department of the Franco's era Spanish Air Force.[1] However, Pradera was arrested in February 1956 for taking part in anti-Franco university protests, which cost him his job.[1] Pradera turned from his family's politically conservative traditions and joined the Communist Party of Spain, which was banned during the Franco era.[1] However, he left the part in 1964 following the expulsions of Jorge Semprún and Fernando Claudín in a party purge.[1]
Pradera and Fernando Savater, a Basque philosopher, co-founded the Claves de Razón Práctica magazine in 1990.[1]
Javier Pradera died on 20 November 2011 at the age of 77. His last column for El País was published on the same day as his death.[1] The piece, which he titled Al borde del abismo (On the brink of the abyss), warned against a potential interim government for Spain if the European sovereign debt crisis worsened.[1]