The Parliament grants the Medal of Honor to Pilarín Bayés and Pere Portabella

BarcelonaThe Bureau of the Parliament has unanimously agreed to award the Medal of Honor in the gold category to the illustrator Pilarín Bayés and to the film director, producer and politician Pere Portabella, in the year of the commemoration of his centenary. The medal is also awarded to the Catalan Association of Former Political Prisoners of Francoism and to the Pro-Memory Association for the Immolated for the Freedom of Catalonia, both of which are commemorating their 50th anniversary. And furthermore, the Medal of Honor is also awarded to the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya (CEC), a powerful entity within Catalan civil society at the crossroads of nature-culture-language, with 150 years of history, which has contributed to knowing, studying and disseminating the Catalan territory.

The President of the Parliament, Josep Rull, explained that they are awarded this recognition for their contribution and commitment to Catalonia, their knowledge of the territory, the defense of freedoms, democratic memory, and the preservation of Catalan identity and culture. Pilarín Bayés is one of the deans of contemporary Catalan illustration, with more than 60 years of career and over a thousand illustrated books. Her work has contributed to creating "the visual imaginary of several generations of Catalans, using drawing as a tool for education, dissemination, and transmission of the language, history, and popular culture of Catalonia". Regarding Portabella, Rull highlighted that he was a key figure for the recovery of democratic freedoms, Catalan culture, and in politics, during the end of the Franco regime and the Transition: in 1976, he entered the Parliament hemicycle, which had been closed since 1938, and participated in the organization and direction of the reception of the former President of the Generalitat, Josep Tarradellas, in Barcelona.

Regarding the two memorialist entities, he highlighted their work for the recovery of democratic memory, the transmission of testimonies, the reparation of victims, and education.

The Parliament has been awarding the Medal of Honor since the year 2000 to personalities or institutions that deserve exceptional recognition: the first to receive it was the priest and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, and last year it was granted to the Federation of Athenaeums of Catalonia and to the doctor of computer science and expert in artificial intelligence (AI) Karina Gibert. Last year, furthermore, the awarding of the medals was decoupled from the National Day of Catalonia to give exceptionality to the event.