The reissue of the book Des dels turons a l'altra banda del riu - "From the hills on the other side of the river" - written by a young Jordi Pujol during the two years and eight months he spent in Zaragoza prison for his anti-Franco struggle, presented this Wednesday at the Ona bookstore in Barcelona, has allowed Pujolism to complete a slow and traumatic path of reparation for the man who continues to be, without a doubt, the outstanding figure of Catalanism and the principal builder of modern Catalonia. At the age of 92 - he will be 93 on June 9th - and less than five months since he underwent an operation at the Hospital de Sant Pau as a result of a stroke, which put his life at risk and has left him with some permanent consequences, Jordi Pujol has made a major reappearance in a public event, the first that he himself has called since his journey into a twilight zone began on July 25th, 2014 with the confession that he had maintained in secret the existence of his father Florenci's famous inheritance.
Pujol has spared no effort during these years to reach a public event such as the presentation of this book, which represents a rehabilitation among his own people and will mark the beginning of forgiveness in many sectors of Catalan society. Gone are all those years when he attended numerous events from a discreet row in the audience in an attempt to go as unnoticed as possible. Also the more or less choral event that the then-minister Victòria Alsina held a year ago at the University of Barcelona with the former Catalan presidents to talk about Europe, with the participation, in addition to Pujol, of José Montilla, Artur Mas, Carles Puigdemont and Quim Torra - which already marked a important turning point from the period when he stayed out of the limelight.
This week, he seems to have wanted to shift to another gear in his return to civic life, as if time really was of the essence and he still wanted to do and say a few things. On Monday, in the front row of the Auditorium meeting to support the candidacy of Xavier Trias for the mayoralty of Barcelona, sending a message to all the scattered diaspora groups of the old Convergència (CDC) party to stop being silly and start rowing in the same direction. There is no other way if a party wants to be hegemonic and rule the country. On Tuesday he returned to the Palau de la Generalitat to say his last goodbye to the writer and journalist Josep Maria Espinàs, three years older than him. And, this Wednesday, to leave two clearly different messages: one from the politician, that the country is alive, and another from the person, I failed myself. The Pujol of hope before the Pujol of repentance.
In fact, the choice of the book to re-publish is no coincidence. Nor is it an accident that he has maintained the subtitle from that first edition: "Between action and hope". The Pujol of those prison writings and of confidence in his country, verbalized in the declaration that the country is alive, and reclaiming its legacy. Able to raise spontaneous applause and with a mastery of the stage that he has not lost, trying to recover the best possible version of himself at 93 years of age and after more than a few setbacks. The presence of a dozen ministers from CDC, PDeCAT and Junts governments, with president Mas out front, is just another example of this absolution. Also the attendance of two ministers with independent backgrounds from the current ERC government, namely Joaquim Nadal, ex-PSC, and Carles Campuzano, ex-CDC.
Because, with their successes and their mistakes, those governments built a country, shaped an identity and their politics were serious and had worthy standards. Nothing to do with a Catalonia where the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, is capable of such an outlandish and incomprehensible action as the breaking off of the twin city relationship with Tel Aviv for exclusively electoral and sectarian reasons, without even passing the question through the plenary session of the city council. It is not surprising that leaders like Jordi Pujol become enormous.