Sánchez receives playwright Fernando Arrabal at the Moncloa Palace
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez welcomed poet, novelist, and filmmaker Fernando Arrabal to the Moncloa Palace on Tuesday. He emphasized that he is one of Spain's "most universal and living history" playwrights.
"Thank you, maestro, for always reminding us that play sets us free and that the fanaticisms we should fear most are those that can be confused with tolerance. Long live the theater always," Sánchez wrote in a message on X, formerly Twitter, where he shared a video during a visit to various rooms in La Moncloa with Arrabal.
Arrabal was born in Melilla in 1932 , although he has lived in France since 1955. He learned to read and write in Ciudad Rodrigo, won the National Gifted Award at the age of ten, and completed his university studies in Madrid.
He has also published thirteen novels, eight hundred books of poetry , several texts for theatre and several essays, among which his books on chess stand out.
It has been an honor to welcome Fernando Arrabal, one of our most universal playwrights and living history of our country, to La Moncloa. Thank you, maestro, for always reminding us that play sets us free and that the fanaticisms we should fear most are those that can… pic.twitter.com/I7DfYsTCu2
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) June 10, 2025
His novels have been translated into numerous languages . His "Letter to General Franco" had a particular impact, published during the dictator's lifetime.
Arrabal is the only major Spanish intellectual who never returned from exile . His complete plays, published in all major languages, have been published in two volumes of over 2,000 pages in Espasa's Castilian Classics Collection in 1997, and updated in 2009.
ABC.es
