The avant-garde reported last Friday that the National Court had finally set the date for the trial of the Pujol family. There were three small columns on the last page of the Politics section. The hearing in question will take place in at least a year. Between November 2025 and April 2026. There is still a long way to go. For reasons of age, Jordi Pujol may not see him. And, if convicted, I highly doubt he will go to prison. He is now 94 years old.
Coincidence or not, the same newspaper published three pages two days later also with the former president as the protagonist. It almost felt like a tribute. Laundering operations have increased in recent years.
It was a relaxed conversation between him, his heir apparent Artur Mas and his advisor for 12 years, first at Health, then at the Presidency, Xavier Trias.
The subject, as you can imagine, was not the trial, but the 50 years of Convergencia’s founding. The party founded in Montserrat Monastery precisely on November 17, 1974.
That being said, more than a commemoration, they could have organized a delayed funeral. Indeed, the CDC – which was hegemonic in the 80s and 90s – no longer exists. Despite the fact that between 2010 and 2012 he reached the peak of his power: Mas governed the Generalitat with 62 deputies. Trias became mayor of Barcelona after the municipal elections of 2011. And Duran obtained 17 deputies in Madrid in November of the same year. Additionally, the four Catalan councils were in charge for the first time. Alone or with Esquerra. Never seen before. There’s nothing left.
Convergencia succumbed to corruption – in the case of Palau or in the Pujol case already mentioned – and also to the process. Personally, I never knew why Pujol became an independentist. I remember it Luis Maria Anson appointed him on May 20, 1984 Spanish of the year. I think the all-powerful ABC director at the time did it because he was the only one to beat the socialists. But Pujol accepted the award.
Indeed, on April 29, 1984, the second regional elections took place and the leader of the CiU obtained the first of his three absolute majorities. The majority of the PSOE –the famous photo of the Palace with Felipe and Guerra– It was two years ago: in 1982.
But, I insist, I do not know why Pujol signed up for the process. I suspect it was to save his children. He always regretted having been a bad father. Having devoted himself more to the Generalitat than to the family. He didn’t even rest on weekends. He made the famous regional visits. The secret of his electoral success for so many years.
The Minister of Finance at the time, Christophe Montororevealed to Congress in 2014, for example, that the IRS had begun investigating the Pujols in 2000.
Since we had never seen such a slow investigation before, the president must have thought, “Oh yeah? Well now you’re going to find out. After all, Pujol is one of the fathers of the process. Mas lit the fire, but Pujol added fuel.
Not forgetting Pasqual Maragall, who was desperate to become president of the Generalitat after narrowly failing in 1999. Although we can talk about that another day.
I say this not only because of the famous Plan 2000 – that of re-Catalanization of Catalonia– but also because he could have stopped the aforementioned process and did not do so, he had the moral authority to do so or at least to have warned of the risks. And he didn’t. The colleague of these same opinion pages, Jorge Fernandezwent to see him at his office on Paseo de Gracia in 2013. He and Pujol had known each other for years. The proof is that he is one of the rare people like Pujol that he knows. Jorge Fernández, in addition to living in Barcelona since the age of three, was at the time the youngest civilian governor in Spain.
On 23-F he was arrested in Asturias and the President of the Generalitat called him to inquire about the situation. Already at that time, he had clearly indicated that he was Catalanist but not “separatist”. The former Minister of the Interior (2011-2016) thought of taking advantage of this personal relationship with the approval of Mariano Rajoy. In 2013, Parliament approved the Declaration of Sovereignty, which officially launched the process, following the demands of the CUP.
“President,” he told him, “you know there is no way out of this,” he told him in an informal meeting before the Diada of that year. “I am not a Catalanist, but I love Catalonia,” added Jorge Fernández.
Pujol became the length. Indeed, when leaving, he gave him the book which marked his turning point towards independence. The hiker before Congost. (The walker in front of the gorge), in its Spanish version. With the request that if you didn’t have time to read it in its entirety, you at least read the prologue.
The former president, in the interview with The avant-gardeassured the other day that Catalonia “is in danger”. It’s the same thing he said in his most important work, published in the 1960s after his release from prison. I read it when I was young because I was a pushover back then. He said pretty much the same thing, that Catalonia was in danger.
It is, however, curious that Jordi Pujol contributed to it. The process, as you know, has devastated everything: the ruling class, the image of Catalan institutions, the credibility of TV3the neutrality of the public service – these yellow ribbons on public buildings -, the efficiency of the Mossos and even the level of the Catalan school, which appears at the end of everything in the Pisa reports. For everything, Pujol is one of the most responsible. He could have acted and he didn’t.
