The question was posed by Josep Vallverdú in a poem, and it comes to me readily to answer with a list of responses full of gratitude to this Lleida gentleman: the good things in life are in his sustained work, in his prolific generosity with child and youth readers, in the intelligent good nature that followed him like a perfume, in the wisdom of a recent word, when he said that we must strive to have only "affections and hopes left in the closet", and that "the greater the affections, the closer hopes will be to becoming reality".

The first word of the day must be for Josep Vallverdú, who died yesterday at 103 years old.History will speak of the Lleida writer as a celebrated author of children's and young adult novels, with Rovelló at the peak of popularity. But Vallverdú is much more than that: there are more than 200 books in Catalan written amidst prohibitions, those of a life that took place in large part between two dictatorships, that of Primo de Rivera and that of Franco, a civil war and a post-war period. Vallverdú, from the same group as Joaquim Carbó, Sebastià Sorribas, or Emili Teixidor, is one of those writers who saved our words, and for that he deserves our gratitude. From Vallverdú, I want to share with you today some wise words spoken in an interview, talking about what was to remain in the last years of life. He said: “Only affections and hopes should remain in the closet, and the stronger the affections, the closer the hopes will be to becoming a reality.” May he rest in peace, Josep Vallverdú.Meanwhile, the judicial landscape is darkening for former Spanish president Zapatero and, by extension, for the current president Sánchez, who has always supported him, because although it has not been clarified who Zapatero influenced to rescue an airline with 53 million of public money for the pandemic, what seems proven is that the company paid money, a percentage of which ended up in Zapatero's pocket, and he denied having anything to do with it. For the moment, La Moncloa continues to trust Zapatero, but in view of what is known, that trust hangs by a thread.And today the Parliament held the last control session of the Government before the holidays. President Illa has been heard to say that he has gone from “no amnesty nor anything like that” to applauding the ECJ and asking that Spanish justice comply with the law. In fact, Puigdemont, Comín and Puig have denounced Spain before the European Commission for disregarding the ECJ.But the most interesting thing was when the spokesperson for Junts, Mònica Sales, asked the president what he plans to do about the shameful state investments in Catalonia, which last year were 8.6%. And Illa's response began by acknowledging the problem.

"I try to write every day, never to fail", said Josep Vallverdú in 2022, months before turning 99, when he presented one of his latest youth novels, The Eighth Dwarf (La Galera), in which he imagined an alternative version of the popular Snow White. For more than six decades – the ones separating The Fish Seller (Arimany, 1960) and Treasured Silence (Pagès, 2023)– Vallverdú dedicated himself to building, with admirable constancy, rigor, and heterogeneity, one of the most prolific works – exceeding 200 books – in contemporary Catalan literature, which this Tuesday closes with his death at 103 years old, as the ARA has been able to confirm. Death comes to him months after publishing The Return of Rovelló (La Galera, 2025), in which he revived one of the most beloved characters of his work, that of a little dog who got lost in the middle of the woods.