IDEES, revista de temes contemporanis

Catalonia always rises

President Pujol and the mayor of Seva, Josep Palmarola, chat with Andreu Ulied on the future and the infrastructures in Catalonia. This is one of the chapters of the book “The discontent of a small Europe”, in which this civil engineer talks with different personalities about the mobility crisis and Catalan society.

Jordi Pujol sees the problems of infrastructures as one more aspect of the national health, which he considers to be delicate. He goes straight to the point when he says that there has been ill-treatment by the state in relation to the investments necessary, evading Catalan demands, as occurred at the end of the 19th century, and even so the infrastructures are well orientated. He attributes part of the blame for this unfair treatment to the Catalan parties, which have not earned sufficient respect for the country because they often act with a lack of seriousness. Even so, President Pujol is optimistic: Catalonia always reacts.

For his part, Josep Palmarola is shown to be a man of action who prefers to solve problems rather than to philosophize. And this is how he sees the infrastructures. In his town, Seva, where he has been mayor since 1979, he claims that he has always acted resolutely, without thinking about whose responsibility it was. And without renouncing the co-payment of public services. He believes that more political leadership is needed in Catalonia, and less discussion of the problems.