Pujol vindicates Prenafeta, "the man who laid the foundations of the Generalitat"

BarcelonaIt has been a year and a half since the death of a key man for Catalan politics as was Lluís Prenafeta, right-hand man of former president Jordi Pujol and representative of a way of doing things from Convergència since the restoration of the Generalitat. This Monday, a tribute event was held with prominent Convergent representatives such as former president Artur Mas; Pujol himself –who was the protagonist, with a speech of praise that he himself jokingly said was "a torture" for the audience–; former mayor of Barcelona Xavier Trias; the leader of Junts in the Catalan capital, Jordi Martí Galbis; former ministers Quim Forn and Germà Gordó –president of Convergents–, and former CDC leader, David Madí. The Espai Línia was packed to the rafters, so Gordó and Madí had to remain standing the whole time.

"A great servant of the Generalitat and of Catalonia" who "never failed". This is the portrait that Pujol paints of him, who gave a long speech, even though he was among the audience. "If today there is a good memory of what the Generalitat was, it is due to Prenafeta's work", he asserted, and added that "he laid the foundations for the Generalitat to be a consistent tool". For this reason, he has vindicated the "memory of Prenafeta and in a certain way the memory of what Convergència was, of the effort of the whole of Catalonia over many years". In his opinion, "hopefully there will be people like Prenafeta in Catalonia and at the service of Catalonia".

Pujol defined the man who was Secretary of the Presidency from 1980 to 1990 and who promoted TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio, as "a true liberal and a nationalist to the core," as well as very "loyal." He also wanted to make an approving remark when journalist José Antich spoke about the international agenda that Prenafeta was preparing for Pujol, which includes meetings with then-President of the United States George H. W. Bush, Pope John Paul II, or the Emperor of Japan.

And it also had a touch of humor when he showed himself satisfied by the interest of "thirty young people" in Prenafeta. "You are not that young; you, out," he said to an attendee, laughing.

Convergent gene

The convergent scent has been breathed from the beginning, also with the projection of some videos that praised the figure of Prenafeta, with Trias himself, Pujol, Mas, the advertiser Lluís Bassat or the president of Barça, Joan Laporta. The blaugrana leader even emphasizes for this memorial that he was a "cultured man" with whom he shared many "enriching breakfasts", with "a sense of humor and dignity". "He felt admired because we all had for him an admiration typical of a person with the human category of Prenafeta", he concludes. On the other hand, Mas, who met him in 1982 when the former president was a subordinate technician "at the service of the foreign policy of the Generalitat", maintains that "Prenafeta was a demigod or Saint Peter". And he further highlighted that he starred in "the revolution of modernity and country structure that clearly marked the difference", with the promotion of the national Catalan radio and television.

Trias, also present at the tribute, sees him as "a very hardworking person, with an extraordinary political vision" and who "generated affection", just as he said in a recorded video; while Bassat has described him as an "upright" person, at the same time as he recalled the campaign of "we are 6 million". According to Vicenç Villatoro, journalist and former senior convergent official, Prenafeta was a "right-wing Marxist", due to the conception he had of power.

Pretoria Case

However, the stain of corruption was not ignored at the event. Prenafeta agreed to a sentence of one year, 11 months, and 27 days for influence peddling and money laundering in the Pretoria urban corruption case due to his real estate intermediation. "He did not want to go back to prison," emphasized journalist Vicent Sanchis, who knew him when he worked for El Observador, of which he was the owner. A case that he believes was "a disgrace," characterized by "arbitrariness," in his opinion. "When he spends a few weeks in prison, I find him different; he had a dull look and the obsession with not returning to prison," he pointed out, given that he was deprived of his liberty for a few weeks. "Prenafeta makes a deal with the Prosecutor's Office like so many people because the prosecutor told him 'you may have all the reason in the world, but if you don't reach a deal with me, you will go to prison'," he maintained. According to his criteria, "the thorn remained stuck in his side forever because he considered himself innocent," just as he defended in interviews two years before he died. Mas also remarked that he made "efforts" to "help" Prenafeta in the most critical moments. Marc Prenafeta, a descendant of the deceased, made it clear that he was a "reckless entrepreneur" who "would end up paying for some mistakes due to being too much of an entrepreneur".