It 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.

Memory is cruel to details, even the most important ones. Since 1980, Jordi Pujol had a string of electoral victories for twenty-three years. Not all of those years were the same. As is often the case with long-term politicians, the first ones are always the most productive. President Pujol's first decade was one of great achievements, the one that defined and articulated the Generalitat we know today. Back then, Pujol did little and did a lot. From nothing. And right at his side, at that moment of dawn, was a man who would pave the way for him for a decade: Lluís Prenafeta. A man little or much forgotten, because memory is harsh.

Lluís Prenafeta passed away this Tuesday at the age of 86, according to ACN. Born in Ivars d'Urgell in 1939, Prenafeta served for ten years (between 1980 and 1990) as Secretary General of the Presidency of the Generalitat, alongside former President Jordi Pujol, whose right-hand man he was. A driving force behind TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio, Prenafeta was also known for promoting the Generalitat abroad during his time in the Catalan government. A leader of CDC, a party he had been a member of since the 1970s, Prenafeta left active politics when he left the Palau de la Generalitat and went on to work in the private sector. In 2001, he created the Fundación Catalunya Oberta (Catalunya Oberta Foundation), a think tank of liberal ideology that dissolved in 2017. Jordi Pujol's former right-hand man was also implicated in corruption in the Pretoria case.