With Josep Piqué we are leaving an endearing person and a unique way of understanding life in common. His has been an extraordinarily rich career, one that I have been extremely lucky to know up close for decades.
From his native Vilanova i la Geltrú, Josep’s civic career is based on his university years, where he acquired a brilliant academic training as a lawyer and, especially, as an economist at the University of Barcelona, ​​together with his dear companion Antón Costas, and under under the tutelage of Professor Joan Hortalá.
Most of us will remember him for his political career which, beginning in the Generalitat, led him to assume various ministries of the Government of Spain. My perception of those many years is synthesized in his period as Government Spokesperson, to the point of considering him the most brilliant of our lives in democracy. In some very complex circumstances, his appearances contributed to calm and enlighten the public; his poise and closeness invited attention to him; his pedagogical and synthesis capacity made it easier to understand him; and his respect for the opposition tempered the tension of the moment.
In his political period, and from different positions, I had the opportunity to negotiate with him on multiple issues. In the majority, his attitude and knowledge of the issues facilitated the agreement. And in those in which it was impossible, his good work did not weaken the bond of kindness and dialogue, it strengthened it.
Josep Piqué was always committed to the productive world, whether it was during his political stage or by directly assuming responsibilities in the company. Carried by his modernizing spirit, his thing was to understand change and make it an axis of progress. For this reason, he never took refuge in conservative positions; On the contrary, he opted for productive modernization and for creating an institutional framework that favored innovation and business growth. An attitude that we have known closely from Foment del Treball where, even in these last months when the disease limited him, he always participated actively when we asked him to. In turn, his was a liberalism charged with social sensitivity, far from radicalisms that fracture society and deteriorate politics.
In the private institutional world, he also found an ideal space for his way of conceiving life in society. He presided over various entities, his great reference being the CÃrculo de EconomÃa, where we met in so many meetings. A commitment that, in recent years, led him to promote and preside over the La Toja VÃnculo Atlántico Forum, which, in just four editions, has become the greatest institutional reference in defense of the values ​​that sustain said Atlantic space.
Josep Piqué has been a person in love with life. A tremendous humanity supported by the kindness and naturalness of him with whom he approached him; in his subtle combination of intelligence and curiosity, which made him interested in everything; and in his brilliance, which allowed him to make the intricately complex understandable. Losing a person so dedicated to life is especially hard for his family and friends. For them all our affection. Josep Piqué has left us, but we still have his example of how to understand life in common.
