The Transition in Catalonia posed a double challenge for the post-Franco authorities. On one hand, a unified opposition movement had taken hold with a clear demand for self-government. On the other, Catalan society was ideologically positioned on the left, with a weight of communists and socialists unprecedented in the Spains and, therefore, susceptible to leading the democratic autonomism. Seen from Madrid—and contradicting the cliché of “rather a red Spain than a broken one”—, the second eventuality was more feared than the first, given that it was seen as possible to control a future Generalitat through a reduction (or subsequently harmonization) of powers and/or an institution in more favorable hands (the local UCD) or in representatives capable of confronting the Marxist bias (be it the historic Josep Tarradellas, or the rising Jordi Pujol).At least that is the working hypothesis of the economist and historian Eloi Gummà (Barcelona, 1996). Based on his doctoral thesis, From Anti-Francoism to Pujolism (Akal) he attempts to explain how Catalonia went from a democratic opposition leaning to the left to an autonomism leaning towards the right. That is to say, through what circumstances the reference party went from being the PSUC to the Convergència i Unió coalition, and the collective leadership represented by the Assembly of Catalonia was ceded to the personalism of Jordi Pujol.The fight for hegemony

According to Gummà, the explanation must be sought, as stated in the book's subtitle, in "the struggle for hegemony". The global neoliberal wave at the end of the Cold War synchronized with the counterattack led in Spain by the governments in Madrid and by the employers' associations. It was about political and economic initiative against the left, the unions... In this sense, the author's ambition, to raise pertinent and uncomfortable questions and to place the Catalan narrative within international dynamics, is to be appreciated. Even more so for doing it in Catalan –despite some inconsistency when translating the citations–, within this new essay collection (Veus de Clio), directed by the historian –and author of the prologue and director of the thesis– Xavier Domènech.The complicity between Gummà and Domènech is evident—not only because of the occasional informal 'Xavi' that we read. Both of them belong to the historiographical school that, starting from the now emeritus Pere Ysàs and Carme Molinero, has vindicated the decisive role played by the communist environment in making the continuity of the dictatorship impossible upon Franco's death, in mending the Catalan social fabric, and in positioning Catalonia as a spur for democratic and autonomous demands. However, this genealogy is not exempt from some debatable interpretations.On the one hand, there is a certain Manichaeism in characterizing the unitary anti-Francoism around the PSUC as the ideal, perhaps without bearing in mind that democratic dynamics needed to integrate sectors that did not participate in the struggle for freedoms. Without taking importance away from the role of the opponents, they represented only a part of the entire citizen universe. On the other hand, there is an uncritical acceptance of the image created by Pujolism itself. Certainly, for 23 years the Generalitat acted as if it were a national and hegemonic government. However, in those same years we have a vote differential (lower participation in regional elections) and consolidated majorities in favor of the left in many municipalities (including the large ones) and, above all, in Madrid. Sometimes, the temptation of conspiracy theories can distract us from more mundane explanations.

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