The discussions between grandfather Florenci and Jordi Pujol: this is how the family justifies the inheritance in Andorra

San Fernando de HenaresWith former president Jordi Pujol already out of the picture and two marathon interrogation sessions of the eldest son, Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, and Josep Pujol Ferrusola; this Wednesday at the Audiencia Nacional it was the turn of the rest of the family and the first businessmen involved. Oriol Pujol, the only one of the sons who went into politics, has been the first and has set the defense line. The thesis is that the origin of the inheritance in Andorra is not corruption, as the Prosecutor's Office maintains, but an inheritance left to them by their grandfather because he did not trust the political activities that his son Jordi Pujol i Soley, president of the Generalitat for 23 years, might undertake. So much so that he stated, like the rest of the family, that the former president never had an account in Andorra in his name. For Oriol Pujol, knowing his grandfather's distrust of his father's ability to support the family, it is not "strange" that he left a legacy directly to his grandchildren. Taking into account, moreover, that he was a man with "certain assets": "My grandfather was afraid. He did not understand the political activity and risky commitments that years earlier had led my father to prison."

The most explicit has been Marta Pujol, the second of the seven siblings and who, like the firstborn, had a close relationship with Florenci Pujol. They were both young when Jordi Pujol i Soley was imprisoned during Franco's regime. A time when the grandfather —he explained— was very present in family life and forged a "special" relationship with Marta Ferrusola, the now deceased mother of the family and wife of the former president. She recounted, in this regard, that she learned directly from her grandfather that there was an inheritance in Andorra, after Franco's death: "He decided to leave a legacy for our family," she justified, in view of the possibility that they might not be able to support themselves: "We lived through confrontations between my father and my grandfather over how he used money. My grandfather was very worried about my father's obsession, Catalonia." The Pujol family children have referred to businesses that Jordi Pujol Soley could have financed, such as Banca Catalana, Enciclopèdia Catalana, or the newspaper 'El Correo Catalán'.