What was "hard as hell" for Artur Mas

BarcelonaThe dialogue between Artur Mas and Iñigo Urkullu begins with a warning from the moderator, who will set the tone for the event: "I have decided not to allow any questions on current political events." It is none other than former Catalan minister Santi Vila, who is hosting the discussion at the La Salle campus in Barcelona, ​​where he currently teaches in the Department of Philosophy and Humanities. Vila's warning is fulfilled from top to bottom, as the conversation between the two politicians touches on leadership skills, vocation, family, and also their farewell to the political frontline. The title of the discussion is eloquent: "By Vocation, a Politician."

At first glance, it seems that Mas and Urkullu are two similar political leaders, even with a sort of parallel lives: they are former presidents, from sister and hegemonic parties in their time. The PNV still governs the Basque Country, unlike CiU in Catalonia, although with more than three decades full of traces of form, traces of form, traces of form, traces of suit, as Santi Vila points out.

But it shouldn't take long in conversation to show that they are far from being mirrors. That, despite the similarities, both their political beginning and their (final?) end have a very different aftertaste.

Coming from a family politically committed since the Civil War, Urkullu explains how he launched his political vocation from hiding, as a teenager and when the PNV was barely in the process of legalization. Speaking about his departure to make way for the current Basque president, Imanol Pradales, the Basque politician asserts that it was "simple," due to the generational shift: "If someone had told me to continue, I would have had to think about it. And if someone had told me to fold, I would have said yes," he stated.

Artur Mas, on the other hand, explains a different approach to his political vocation. His family ties to the business world—"where we worked on Saturdays," he says—admittedly that he didn't want to dedicate himself to politics, but rather grew up focused on training himself "to the maximum" for the private sector. And if he reached public life, it was because, in the 1980s, he landed by "chance" on Barcelona City Council as an opposition councilor. However, from that moment on, his dedication was "full and absolute." "By not wanting to dedicate myself, I became united," he quips. He also marks the difference with Iñigo Urkullu when referring to his time with the CUP veto in 2016: "It was really difficult." A decision to leave that he still justifies by the "ascendancy" of the Proceso at that time.

The coincidence

What both former presidents do agree on is that the political vocation continues "forever" and that the ingredients of good leadership are having a project—in their case, Catalan and Basque nationalism—making decisions and accepting the consequences, and surrounding yourself with valid people, even if they are better than yourself. "And that people love you," adds former mayor Xavier Trias from the front row, attributing the advice to former president Jordi Pujol.

The one who doesn't appear in the conversation, despite the fact that the three politicians on stage were linked at the same political moment, is former president Carles Puigdemont. He is the one whom Artur Mas gave way to as president of the Generalitat, and he is the one who asked both Urkullu and Vila to intercede at the most difficult moment of 2017 to prevent the Spanish government from implementing Article 155. Since then, the relationship between the former Lehendakari and the leader of Junts has never been good. And, in fact, there was no Junts top brass in the auditorium this Tuesday.