José Montilla (Iznájar, 1955) received La Vanguardia a few days after meeting former president Carles Puigdemont at a tribute to Pau Casals in Northern Catalonia (south of France).
Seeing you and Carles Puigdemont there together caused a surprise.
I went because they invited me and because I think it was part of my institutional obligations. It was an act attended by all the presidents of the Generalitat, except for two, one for obvious health reasons and the other for personal reasons.
But the political reading was and is inevitable…
I do not deny it. But the morbidity that the peculiar circumstances of Carles Puigdemont and the specific ones of this moment can contribute is of no further importance.
As former president of the Generalitat, you don’t have to give explanations to anyone, but did you warn that this meeting would take place in Sant Miquel de Cuixà?
Normally I do not ask for permission for my activities nor does anyone ask me to ask for it. We can say that people who might have some interest were aware of my presence at this event.
The question is forced: how did you see the former president Puigdemont?
Like all the people who have had institutional responsibilities in Catalonia: with concern but also, I think, with hope. It was a more normal encounter than people think.
From that conversation – all the presidents had lunch together – do you dare to make a prediction of what will happen? You know, the investiture…
I don’t think Feijóo will get the votes to be president. Then President Sánchez will try. Will he get it? Hopefully. Hopefully they will end up fitting the red lines of one and the other for the sake of the general interest and the governability of the country, which needs to be governed in times of global uncertainty. It will not be easy, the negotiation involves many actors.
In his speech at this event he spoke of his federalist proposal. And they whistled at him.
That goes in the charge. In an act of these characteristics, with an audience with a pro-independence look, let’s not forget, it is normal for there to be whistles when you talk about Spain, not to criticize it but rather to say that it must change. I think you have to tell people what you think, not what they want to hear. For that there were already others. I wanted to make this appeal to the need for change of those who have a unique, centralist vision of Spain, to recognize the other, plurality. There is no single way to understand identity. And that works for Spain, but also for Catalonia, whose plurality is also forgotten by some.
The PP criticized him for being there.
(laughs). I coincide in an institutional act with Puigdemont and it is a shame, and they try to show that they can achieve the majority with Junts and that is part of normality. That criticism has no consistency!
The idea of ??an amnesty… what do you think?
I believe that it is necessary to explore all the possibilities of the legal system and the rule of law to find solutions to this dispute. To try to sew up the big tear that occurred in 2017. There are some jurists and experts in constitutional law who point to solutions. Everything must be explored to guarantee coexistence.
The question is: amnesty without an ethical response? Without an acknowledgment of mistakes?
The problem with ethics and morality is that it ends up being something personal. And there is another problem: the “ho tornarem a fer”. I think even those who say it know they won’t do it again. But why does this happen? Because the various electoral calls have not resolved the hegemony within the independence movement. All you have to do is review the speeches at the event in Cuixà… And that competition will also take place in the investiture negotiation process. And it doesn’t help, exactly. But we must count on that plurality within the pro-independence formations themselves.
In 2007 you spoke of disaffection. Still there?
It was long before the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the Statute. Also long before the absolute majority of the PP and the cuts. But now we are not the same: I do not know if it has reached a ceiling, but, obviously, the situation that exists now is not that of four or five years ago in Catalonia, nor in the Basque Country, let us not forget that.
How do you see Catalonia today?
We are not bad. The economic fabric is solid, although opportunities have been lost. If after everything that has happened we are still there, how could we be if we had done things right?
Will the companies that left Catalonia in 2017 ever return?
It is early to evaluate the progress of the companies. Although there are things that are obvious: the decision centers are far from here. The long-term cost will be very high.
Do you fear a decline?
I fear the loss of economic weight and decision-making power. It is lethal and hardly reversible. The public powers must create the conditions of trust so that companies that can and want to can return, but as long as there is uncertainty, I do not think there will be a queue to return. And some will not return. This is an error that sovereignism has not admitted. I would ask those who said that the banks would not leave if they have anything to say now.
However, this perspective masks other evidence: state capitals take it all… Throughout Europe the same thing happens.
The current policy accelerates the global processes of capital absorption and concentration. In Madrid there has been a manifest desire, especially since the mid-nineties, to keep everything. It is so. But here the government of Catalonia has also helped in a certain period linked to the procés. Not in a dear way, but the consequence in the end has been that.
