Saül Garreta (Tarragona, 1972) does not have the common profile of the political positions elected to command an institution such as a port, where at the end of each course the traffic record is especially valued, be it cereals, cars or crude oil, the arrival of new cruise lines and growth is applauded. He is an architect and has great social and environmental sensitivity, concerned about the climate emergency. He has no political experience. ERC militant for only two years, he is a personal bet of the mayor of Tarragona, Pau Ricomà.
Entrepreneur, urban planner and businessman, to explain who he is, he enthusiastically reviews some of the projects he has promoted “because they added value; I have earned my life as an architect”. He is a fervent defender of the social economy. At the age of 50, he lands on the waters of the port with urban planning knowledge and vision of the territory of influence of the Port of Tarragona, the second largest metropolitan area in Catalonia. “We have to believe it.”
He is a novice in port management and arrives with a clear roadmap, a strong personality, a daring character and “a great capacity to imagine futures”, highlights a former partner. He has made it clear since taking office ten days ago that one of his priorities is to make port growth compatible with sustainability. “With all prudence, with responsibility and professionalism. Everything that works I will not put at risk, ”he stresses.
For him, the decarbonisation of the port, renewable energies or the preservation and recovery of natural enclaves affected by the port expansion plans are fundamental. “Growth yes, sustainability too,” he adds.
“He is a visionary in many things, but he is not a naive person,” explains a close friend, convinced like Saül of the need to promote courageous policies in the face of the climate crisis. A fervent defender of “collaborative leadership”, he is promoting the repopulation of an abandoned village in the Pyrenees (Reviure Solanell) or the conversion of a textile colony in El Catllar (Tarragonès) into a shared housing cooperative project.
“He has an enormous capacity to contradict trends, he is excited and dares, and on many occasions he succeeds. He has great moral foundations, but he is an architect, he has his feet on the ground, he is not a happy flower, ”says one of his friends.
Aware of the dangers and threats of the waters where he has agreed to dive, he measures his words in a landing that he wants to be smooth so as not to scare the big companies, preferred clients of the port. Of course, without giving up her transforming will from the beginning. “We have to anticipate things to come,” she insists, shortly after recalling in another interview on local television TAC12 that coal, historical traffic in Tarragona, “has its days numbered.”
If one, in addition to listening to him, reads between the lines, one senses that he will not keep his ideas in a drawer in his new office to satisfy those who have traditionally wanted to prioritize the economy in a giant such as the Port of Tarragona, among those that are growing the most Mediterranean.
So far, Garreta has dipped little on cruisers, highlighting the need for “consensus.” “There are cruise ships that add value to our territory. Three million cruise passengers arrive in Barcelona, ??130,000 in Tarragona, before the pandemic, ”he replies. His predecessor, Josep Maria Cruset (Junts), closed his mandate (2018-22), much applauded, announcing 50,000 more cruise passengers to almost reach the 2019 figures.
The original building that houses the Tarragona Port Authority headquarters, with the president’s office on the upper floor, is the work of the architect Josep Maria Garreta, his father. The building was closed for twelve years, before being rehabilitated, and the possibility of demolishing it to build a new one was considered. Among those who led the social opposition to that demolition, is who is now its most distinguished and unexpected tenant.
