It was the night of August 15 of one of the summers of his presidential malcontents. Pasqual Maragall dined with a small group of journalists who knew about his summer Empordà match. Close and relaxed he was quick to share his uneasiness. The tripartite had become an unthinkable puzzle when the Tinell Pact was signed. And although the disloyalties began with the partners, they ended with their own. Like Churchill, Maragall already perceived that his enemies were his. The others just rivals. Almost as forceful as their opponents led by CiU who refused to accept the official loss of power, yes, but simple opponents to beat.
The laureate Olympic mayor had a hard time accepting that his position had changed. That the long-awaited presidency did not allow him freedom of action he had as aedile, no matter how hard he tried. Even less, subject to a coalition that was sold as the first, forgetting that his predecessors had always had it. But the style and forms were different. To the point that in multiple chronicles they ended up talking about CiU as a party. It was logical. Their differences, which there were, as the long and tortuous road to its dismantling showed, remained in the realm of families and until then had never been brought to the bosom of the Executive. Pujol was a lot of Pujol. The Generalitat was the presidency. I mean, him. And so he stayed the collective imagination.
Although each diner chose a frugal menu, they couldn’t get over the simple French omelette the host ordered. mattered more the honest conversation than the agape. And that was how, after the typical circumlocutions, in which it seems that prudence is stronger than trust, one of the diners snapped at the ‘president’ to send. If he didn’t want to and couldn’t do it as his predecessor, with whom he coincided more than he thought, let him do it as his admired Tarradellas. Send! And before the collective silence, reason sounded. It was the Government that was in coalition, not the presidency or its power. Tiredness and the incipient disease still unknown it took away the necessary spirits to undertake the offensive. A year later he announced that he would not stand for re-election. Montilla tried to come back, but the economic crisis and the same dangerous friendships ended up undermining the intention.
Related news
seventeen years later, Pere Aragonese seems to have made that pending decision. demonstrate authority that his partners do not grant him. Curiously, the heirs of the model that projected respect for the highest institutional figure close to reverentialism are the ones who are now eroding it, giving rise to speculation that if it is not for them it is not for anyone. Of course, in their defense, they can wield the attacks in the same direction as their still partners until a year and a half ago.
Of the crossed accusations of disloyalty Jordi Puignero Ferrer (San Cugat del Vallés, February 2, 1974) has been the penultimate victim. Her head served on the silver platter of divorce for some is that of the villain and for others that of the hero. Time will decide her final qualification, although the sacrifice may turn him into the Junts candidate he was after, thus blocking the path of a fellow ranker. In other words, his enemy.