The day David Fernández offered his kidney to Jaume Asens

BarcelonaThe irrecoverable years (Pórtico), by Jaume Asens, is the story of a generation: that of the "unprotected" young people who were active in the social movements of Barcelona against globalization, police abuse and the crisis between the 90s and the first decade of the 2000s. At that time, Jaume Asens religiously went out to protest in the street "for the reduction of philosophy hours in high school. He never hung, however, a poster of Che Guevara in his room. The author recalled all this on Monday at the presentation of the book, which has become a reunion party for all those young people who are now already reaching 50 years of age. "It is a book that speaks of all of us," he explained together with the former deputy of the CUP David Fernández.

Throughout the pages of the book, Asens explains how the friendship between the protagonists of this generational story has survived, in some cases, and has cracked, in others. The The MEP has launched a dart at those who have distanced themselves due to their differences with Podemos, from which he ended up tearing up his membership card: "There is nothing more idiotic than sacrificing friendship for politics." As an example of the opposite, he has given his relationship with David Fernández, to whom - he says - he has dedicated a chapter of his next book entitled "Humility." The former leader of the CUP has responded by recalling a New Year's Eve in which Asens explained to him that he had a health problem that affected his kidneys. Fernández offered him one because, fortunately, he had two: "A kidney for freedom and a kidney for friendship." "And a spoiler: the next book is great," he added.

Beyond the reunion of that group of young people turned into political leaders, philosophers and lawyers, the event has also been a meeting point for the leaders of the main political groups in Catalonia. Apart from the Comuns, there were former CUP deputies, but also former leaders of ERC –from Ernest Maragall to Xavier Godàs, including Joan Ridao–, Junts –with Josep Rull and Àlex Sarri– and the PSC –with Manel Cruz, former philosophy professor of Assens–. Even the former president of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol was present, to whom Asens filed a complaint for the alleged corruption cases affecting the family. "The greatest recognition is the presence of the adversaries," said Asens. No one was missing, except, perhaps, Ada Colau. One of the main characters of the book.

"The Grace Kelly of social movements"

In The irrecoverable years, Asens recalls the magnetism of a young Colau with whom he spoke for the first time on the subway, after an assembly at the faculty. "She was a girl of sharp but simple beauty [...]. The sum of her black clothing, her firm walk, a slender figure, a hairstyle waiter, an olive-skinned face, the way he smoked cigars, a direct style, the rotund but elegant gestures and the conviction inappropriate for his age gave him an aura of femme fatale "I was curious about her." Taking up the nickname given to her by journalist Manuel Trallero, Asens even refers to Ada Colau as "the Grace Kelly of social movements." It was the beginning of a relationship that would become romantic and then professional, when Asens became her right-hand woman at Barcelona City Hall. Colau prevented Asens from Catalunya, so that she could stay on at the council: "In the end Ada didn't let me go," she recalls. us Among Assens are members of neighbourhood platforms such as the PAH and the labour lawyers with whom Asens defended anarchists and tortured people, but also the group of founding activists of Barcelona en Comú who now remember 2015, the year they arrived at Barcelona City Hall, with great nostalgia. The bookcollection The memoirs of three different Asens: the lawyer, the activist and the politician. Asens threw himself into politics when he left politics after the amnesty negotiations were over, to return shortly after as a member of the Sumar Euro-MP.

What is the aim of the book? As he himself has explained, to prevent this "collective history" from falling into oblivion and to make a self-criticism of a space in times of lean cows, divided and burdened by the Cainite struggles. The manuscript he submitted to the editors was longer than the published book, which was almost 500 pages long. "They cut out my philosophical ideas," the now MEP admitted.