"In this new phase, we do not think a Catalan unity government is convenient. We must consolidate the institutions and accustom the country to the presidency of the Generalitat, but the time has come to govern". He probably did not imagine he would do so for 23 consecutive years, but the day after the 1980 elections, a triumphant Jordi Pujol was already beginning to envision that his main mission should be the creation of autonomous Catalonia. This year marks 46 years since Pujol was invested president, and it so happens that he has now been out of government for as many years as he spent at the head of the Generalitat.

Ten years after his time alongside the CUP's ultimatum, former Catalan president Artur Mas is still in the public eye as a former head of government. As president, he championed the independence process in 2012 after the failure of the fiscal pact he had spearheaded, and now, precisely, the new financing model agreed between ERC and the Spanish government This is once again shaping the political agenda. The former president, in this regard, defended negotiating the proposal on Wednesday to achieve "a change of model," which he does not see with the current approach. At a breakfast briefing for the New Economy Forum at the Palace Hotel, he acknowledged that the agreement brings "improvements," "as always when a new model has been agreed upon," but insisted that it is necessary to go further: "Either we are responsible for our finances or we will always be mere puppets," he declared to the top leadership of Junts, headed by the general secretary.

The published polls are not favorable to Junts per Catalunya. The latest CEO poll placed Carles Puigdemont's party as the third largest force in the Catalan Parliament, almost tied with Aliança Catalana (now the leading opposition party), while in Barcelona... municipal barometer predictions They're even worse.

On the day ARA was founded, November 28, 2010, José Montilla was president and Catalonia was reeling from the Constitutional Court's ruling that had curtailed the Statute of Autonomy. But by the end of the day, there was a new president. in pectoreArtur Mas, and a change in the political cycle was anticipated after seven years of left-wing tripartite governments. The CiU electoral program included a promise to negotiate a kind of economic agreement with Madrid, which was called fiscal pactFifteen years later, it can be said that we are in the same place, awaiting negotiations to improve the Generalitat's finances. But now no one is telling him. fiscal pact but unique financingAnd the one negotiating it isn't CiU, which no longer exists, but ERC. Reading this, someone might think that nothing relevant has happened in these 15 years, but in reality, they have been the most turbulent and exciting years in Catalan politics, perhaps since the Republican era. That's the great paradox of those 15 years.

Spanish President Pedro Sánchez is deeply dividing Catalan political identity today. In the post-independence era, without a pro-independence majority, the big question is what to do with the Spanish government: whether to block it or negotiate with it. Without any criticism of their past actions, former Catalan presidents José Montilla, Artur Mas, Carles Puigdemont, and Pere Aragonès clashed over Sánchez and unity in a colloquium on Catalan identity this Thursday. Because they quickly reached an agreement on Catalan identity in theory, but when it comes to putting it into practice, everything changes.

"The proposed organic law establishing the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia and repealing Organic Law 4/1979, of December 18, on the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, was approved by 120 votes in favor and 15 votes against."

The signing of the National Language Pact, endowed with a very considerable sum of 255 million euros for this year, has put the situation of Catalan at the center of attention.

Artur Mas files a complaint against former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz and former PP Secretary General María Dolores de Cospedal for Operation Catalunya and also for espionage with Pegasus. The former president has also included former Secretary of State for Security Francisco Martínez and senior officials Eugenio Pino and Marcelino Martín-Blas in the complaint. Likewise, he has added to the list of defendants the former directors of the CNI, Félix Sanz Roldán and Paz Esteban, in addition to the heads of the company that marketed the spy software with Pegasus. NSO is trying to be behind personal and political views and alter the election results." However, he does not rule out that during the course of the judicial process he could extend the complaint to former Spanish President Mariano Rajoy and former Spanish Vice President Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, whom he believes were involved in everything. To begin with, Maslic has filed the entry for falsification of an official document by a public official, misappropriation of public resources, disclosure of secrets by public officials, and violation of fundamental rights. where he recalled that between 2012 and 2015 is when he began to be spied on via mobile phone, but that this continued until 2020. "The objective was the same, to combat ideas and to eliminate people and political ideas. They started with Operation Catalunya and continued with Pegasus [...], "What they fundamentally wanted to destroy was Convergència," he said.

The 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."

In the interview published this Sunday by ARA, former president of the Generalitat (Catalan government) Artur Mas explains that he has already filed a complaint regarding the Catalunya operation, which he announced on Monday before the Congress of Deputies' commission of inquiry. The complaint has two legs. The first concerns the publication of fake news through the so-called "patriotic police," a maneuver orchestrated by former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo on behalf of the PP leadership, as evidenced by audio recordings provided by the former police officer himself. The second refers to the Pegasus spying of which Mas was a victim between 2015 and 2020, according to the specialized Canadian laboratory.

Artur Mas (Barcelona, ​​1956) visits the ARA editorial office the same week he announced, from the Congress of Deputies, the filing of a complaint regarding Operation Catalunya. He still remembers the harshness of some of his comments during the commission of inquiry.

Since Pedro Sánchez stepped back for five days a year ago to see whether he would continue or not, his star has been fading. His silence last Monday, the day of the blackout, confirmed that the best days are behind him. That's also normal. In a few weeks, he will have been president for seven years. However, he has overcome the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and is even governing despite losing the elections. But above all, Sánchez remains the smartest member of the Spanish political class, far ahead of the challenger Feijóo.

The last time Artur Mas appeared in Congress was in November 2005 to defend the Statute of Autonomy, and almost 20 years later, he returned this Monday to "solemnly," he said, announce a complaint regarding Operation Catalunya. The two issues are interrelated, as evidenced by the fact that they appeared throughout the former president of the Generalitat's appearance before the commission on the dirty war against the Catalan Process. His appearance was preceded by the publication on RAC1 that Mas is the main victim of Pegasus spying in Spain, with around thirty infections on his mobile phone between 2015 and 2020—during a period, he was president—which has acted as a trigger for legal action. "Knowing the truth and ensuring that everyone assumes their responsibilities is the only way to restore and heal the wounds inflicted on the Spanish democratic system by Operation Catalunya," he argued.

On Tuesday, the Attorney General of the State, Álvaro García Ortiz, appointed prosecutor Emilio Sánchez Ulled (Lleida, 1966), who is currently serving on special services in the European Union, to fill the newly created position of prosecutor for crimes against public administration. It was a controversial appointment because the members of the majority Association of Prosecutors abstained, expressing their opposition to the potential invasion of powers by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.

Former CDC treasurer Daniel Osàcar has changed his defense strategy. The man loyal to Convergència who He defended the party while Fèlix Millet and Jordi Montull confessed to the irregular financing of the party through the Palau de la Música has now decided, after feeling abandoned by the party and changing lawyers, that he has nothing left to lose. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office also pocketed the CDC. The former treasurer of the Convergent Party has already admitted to the judge in the case that the party had laundered money.This Tuesday, he raised his eyebrows in a new court statement. According to judicial sources consulted by ARA, Osàcar allegedly insinuated that former president Artur Mas must have been aware of this system, through which several high-ranking CDC officials laundered commission money that flowed to the party, given the party's hierarchy and the fact that the leader of the system was his right-hand man, former minister Germ.

"You have a problem and that problem is called 3%." With this phrase, Pasqual Maragall shook up Catalan politics exactly twenty years ago in a speech as president of the Generalitat from the Parliament. It was February 24, 2005 and a special plenary session was being held following the The collapse in the Carmel of Barcelona after an accident during the construction of the tunnel for metro line 5, which caused a political crisis in the country. After an episode of tension and accusations of disrespect between the president and the head of the opposition, Artur Mas, he exploded, accusing CiU of corruption in the awarding of public works contracts. How did this condition the political scene and how was it experienced in the chamber?

The former president of the Generalitat Artur Mas reviewed this Monday in an interview on the program The Mediterranean Republic One of the anecdotes that reveal the most mischievous moments of his youth. "I don't know if that can be explained," the former Convergent leader began by saying to the interviewer, Maria de la Pau Janer. Mas recounted that in 1974, when he was 18 and had finished school, he made a trip that will forever remain etched in his memory: an Interrail trip with classmates through the European capitals. He doesn't remember if it was in Copenhagen or Amsterdam that they decided to go to a market where "there were magazines of all kinds." "Porn magazines; and we bought them." A "mistake" that he paid dearly for, because the Civil Guard caught him in Portbou, returning by train, and he ended up naked.

Months ago – in some cases years – the research group Citizen Lab, from the University of Toronto, contacted dozens of individuals linked to the Independence bid to see if they could analyse their mobile phones. They wanted to check whether they had been victims of Pegasus, a virus devised by Israeli company NSO only sold to states which could be used to access all information on a cell phone can be obtained without the affected party knowing about it. The results came back positive: their phones had been infected, yet they had all been acting as if they were being spied on for some time. As many as nine victims explained their experience to ARA.

Constitutional Court has again signed a unanimous ruling putting an end to a run of disagreements between magistrates in recent months. Upholding the ruling against Artur Mas over the 2014 independence vote has again generated consensus, which has dismissed the former Catalan president's appeal for protection. It opposes all allegations and at one point in the sentence reproaches him for invoking the possible violation of some rights to justify his conduct of contempt for the orders of the Constitutional Court.

The Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of former president Artur Mas and part of his last government against the conviction of the Court of Auditors for the 9-N. In November 2018, the auditing body condemned the former president and the former ministers Joana Ortega, Francesc Homs and Irene Rigau and six senior officials to return nearly five million euros spent due to the 9-N (2014 Catalan self-determination voting process). After filing an appeal in the same Court of Auditors -which caused the fine to rise to 5.8 million euros with interest-, they had a free hand to go to the Supreme Court, which almost two years after they filed the appeal has decided not to admit it for processing, in a resolution to which ARA has had access.