Pujol, a bucket of cold water

A president of the Government is more than a person who leads the Executive. Is someone who people has trust in, and so he has been voted and chosen. Is someone who assumes the role of representing a nation and of ensuring his citizens live in the best possible conditions. He has, in his hands, the future of a country and the future of a lot of people.

Sometimes, these leaders have a special charisma which wraps them. They make you see (or believe) that they want the same as you want, that they will fight until it is over to get what you desire. They have the power even to create an all-nation feeling. They get up to a point that creates something that joins a full nation, with all the difficulties and merits that this entails. A nation is formed by different behaviors, ways of thinking, points of view, economic status, perspectives, pasts and futures. But some of them are able to dissolve these differences and make a whole country, with the divergences it has in, fight for a same cause.

Pujol got it. He started an era which a lot of Catalans trusted in: they felt identified with their leader during the twenty-three years period he was on the top. Pujol had a very important role in the creation of a Spain as a “State of Autonomies”. Catalans were proud of his leader.

“Pujol and Ferrusola represented a Catalonia role model, and suddenly, all this turns up. The blow has been too hard. Catalans had trusted them”. Those are Cristina Palomar’s convincing words. She has written a non-authorized portrait about Marta Ferrusola, Pujol’s wife. Obviously, the three-million Euros tax fraud in which Pujol is involved has left a lot of people confused. But, furthermore, it has broken a lot of hearts. Catalans feel deceived because their myth has been pulled down.

Why don’t they feel such a deception with Rato’s issue? The answer is quite simple: they knew, somehow, this was about to happen. But with Pujol it is different. The ex-“Very Honored President” has left more than corruption. We are talking about a broken identity. A politician should make sure what is at stake when standing for election: they have to take into account that money makes angry, but anger leaves. Will this bucket of cold water ever leave?