Read All About It!

One of my MBA classmates, Salvador Illa, become President of Catalonia yesterday! I don’t know him very well as he was in a Spanish section and not my International section, but we do share a what’s app group. He was the Spanish Health Minister during Covid and has a reputation of being a safe pair of hands, open to compromise with a focus on public services as opposed to all the independent struggles of the last ten years.

His big day was somewhat overshadowed by the theatrics of former President Puigdemont who snuck in and out from France, breaking his seven year exile, to give a four-minute speech to his diminishing group of independence supporters.

He should have been able to return without fear of arrest under the terms of the recent amnesty which has been key to getting Catalonia and Spain onto a better footing but the highly politicised Supreme Court (a relic from the Franco years) has held there is one relatively minor charge against him that falls outwith the scope of the amnesty and so have upheld the arrest warrant against him.

The local police (Los Mossos d’Esquadra, literally Barrio Boys!) have got some egg on their faces having somehow contrived to let him make off in a getaway car!

After having read all about it in a characterful local bar which is the only place we could find a newspaper, we had a lovely lunch in L’Activa, as we did last year.