BarcelonaAnna Balletbò, died this Friday at the age of 81, was a persistent woman. Thanks to that character and a schedule that had grown over the years, from the unexpected fame of being the only parliamentarian the military allowed to leave the chamber on February 23rd because she was pregnant, she managed to hold an economic meeting, which celebrated its 29th edition last year. And the most diverse political, economic, and social figures paraded there, from presidents of the Generalitat (Catalan government) to high-ranking officials and vice presidents of the central executive of all political stripes, trade unionists, academics, and governors of the Bank of Spain, among others. Nobody said no to Anna Balletbò.
But more than the roundtables and presentations that were held, the most interesting part of these meetings were the discussions that followed at night, sometimes lasting until sunrise. As in the edition where David Taguas, who had been director of the Economic Office under Socialist President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and died in 2014, stated emphatically in his deep voice: "Rato knows about economics as much as I do about elephant reproduction."
The nightly gathering was a time when journalists, including the author of this article, would take advantage of the opportunity to chat with politicians and economists in a relaxed manner, in the middle of the Costa Brava night, in a deserted s'Agaró, usually in November or December. On many occasions, Balletbò herself participated, providing information from her contacts and relationships without hiding her reservations about the independence movement, nor did she hide her reservations about guests of other ideologies. These were nights that were usually profitable for journalists.
One of the regulars at these meetings was Luis de Guindos, even though he was Economy Minister in the PP government and later Vice President of the European Central Bank (ECB). But presidents such as Pasqual Maragall, José Montilla, Artur Mas, Carlos Puigdemont, Pere Aragonès, Salvador Illa, and senior officials and Economy advisors such as Andreu Mas-Colell and Oriol Junqueras passed through this seafront hotel, despite the ideological distance in some cases.
But going further back, to the events, which had the support of the Barcelona Chamber of Deputies (which stopped doing so when it had a pro-independence majority in 2019), Balletbò managed to get Rodrigo Rato, when he was Economy Vice President under José María Aznar, or José María Aznar's second-in-command, to come to its hotel during the process in Catalonia.
Miquel Valls, who passed away in 2019, the very year he left the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, which he had presided over since 2002, and José Luis Bonet, president of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and honorary president of Freixenet, accompanied this journalist, who had (nominally) retired from politics, among other editions. In fact, this very week, the tireless Balletbò was already preparing for this year's meeting, according to people who knew him. He was preparing for the next edition with the conviction that no one would say no.
