To settle scores with Jordi Pujol or to publicly shame him

The Pujol trial is underway, and the historic image of the entire clan in the dock dominated almost all the front pages, with some journalists clearly enjoying it excessively. I was surprised, for example, thatThe CountryThey chose a solo photo of the patriarch—who was watching from home—where the rest opted for a large group shot. There was a time when the Prisa newspaper was Jordi Pujol's main media enemy. Then Felipe González reached an understanding, and the journalistic pressure magically eased. Yesterday's photo could perhaps be analyzed Freudianly as the newspaper's way of saying that they still have the final say in shaping his legacy. Portraying him alone departs from one of the most circulating notions, according to which it was the family who orchestrated the plot, with Ferrusola at the helm, while he purged his guilty conscience as an absent father by looking the other way and dedicating himself to politics.

The headline ofABCIt can also be analyzed with a long-term perspective. "The Pujols are playing the victim," they say in generously sized letters. Of course, they don't remember that there was a time, in 1984, when he was named Spaniard of the Year for his contribution to the stability of the State. (Well, and because he demonstrated that the PSOE could be won: the Majestic Pact, twelve years later, with José María Aznar began to be forged here.) In defense of the man, affected by the Banca Catalana case, they wrote: "If Spanish public life were invaded by smear campaigns, based on mere appearances of insurmountable responsibility." But then again, from a newspaper that published the front page "In Munich, four men of goodwill—Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, and Daladier—secure the peace of Europe," it's easy to assume a great capacity for forgetting. When it suits them.