Pedro Calvo Asensio

Until his sudden death in 1863, he also ran The Iberia, a progressive publication from which he provided support and coverage of the proposals of the Sociedad Económica Matritense which advocated for a customs union between Spain and Portugal.

It became a platform for the progressive party and one of the most important and influential in Spain, surviving most bitter enemies: the prime ministers Ramón María Narváez and Leopoldo O'Donnell.

In 1863 La Iberia was acquired by Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, together with José Abascal y Carredano, who ran it until 1866 when it reached its peak circulation and served as a critic of the government in the run up to the Glorious Revolution.

With the new progressive government, he was decorated with the cross of Carlos III and that of Isabella the Catholic, but he refused those, as well as the title of Secretary of the Health Council, in favor of obtaining a seat as Deputy in 1854.

Years later, in an untitled article whose validity was confirmed recently, published in La Iberia on the 6th of September, 1857, Calvo Asensio would dispense with "the renegades of all parties, both political fronts, the pharisees of every great idea" whose existence he blamed on the society that "admitted them...within it, rewards them, considers them, exalts them and respects them."

As deputy in the Cortes Constituent Assembly in 1854, he shows great skills as an orator, two years after he organized in the Senate the coronation of Manuel José Quintana.

With the coup d'état of General O'Donell's 56, the progressive period of Espartero ended and Asensio was forced to start a brief exile to France with Sagasta.