“It was an inoperative board, there was a schism between the pretensions of the president and the rest, a continuous discussion”, explains Andreu Gomila, member of the board of PEN Català. The situation had become untenable, the president and seven members of the board did not understand each other, until a few weeks ago they resigned en masse: next Thursday there will be the annual assembly, and on July 13, a extraordinary meeting in which a new board will be elected.
Outside, PEN Català, the association of writers in Catalan for the defense of freedom of expression and persecuted writers, was working as normal: the centenary celebration with an exhibition at the Palau Robert and the publication of the book , support campaigns for threatened writers, presence at institutional events or the exhibition of Ukrainian artists that premiered a few days ago at Cercle Artístic Sant Lluc. But the procession went inside.
What happened? Manuel Guerrero, who has been a member for many years and does not belong to the board, gives us the background: “PEN has lived through a very complicated time because of the Carme Arenas case – the president who was denounced for considering that she left irregularly appropriate some money – and even then there were those who advocated starting a new fire and who believed that for the health of the institution it was necessary to go to the end”, as has been done and the case is under trial. This was taken over by the next board, with Àngels Gregori as president, from 2018 until a year ago she resigned and proposed for the position Laura Huerga, who inherited her board: Manolo Gil as vice president, J.M. Vidal-Illanes and Gregori as vice-presidents in the Islands and Valencia, Helena Pol as general secretary, Tona Català as treasurer and Ricard Ripoll, Josep Palomero, Miquel Àngel Llauger and Gomila as members.
They didn’t understand each other. Several members of the board point out that there are different ways of seeing things, and that perhaps meeting a board that he did not choose led to “personal encounters”. Guerrero believes that “Huerga has done a lot of work, and I’m sure he’s also made mistakes, but part of the tensions can also come from the clash between a professionalized office that carries on day-to-day and a board with a different work rhythm and dynamic which can lead to some misunderstanding”.
Huerga threatened to resign twice but the board believed it was not a good time considering the Arenas case, until on May 22 seven board members asked him to do so by letter. Finally, it was agreed upon the joint resignation and the calling of new elections, to which two candidacies are expected to be presented. One led by Huerga with Vidal-Illanes and Llauger from the previous board. The other, with the other seven members of the board, headed by a prestigious writer that they do not want to make public yet.
The members of the resigning board take precautions when speaking because they do not want to damage the institution. “We don’t want controversy, because despite the problems this year there has been a lot of activity and very cool things”, says Huerga, who explains that despite the constant disagreements it is still “in a positive way, it is an opportunity for members to choose where to go ‘must go”.
For Helena Pol, it all boils down to “we couldn’t work together because we have different ideas about PEN”. In addition, he assures that “the 2022 activities were previously scheduled. Manuel Guerrero and I have carried out the centenary exhibition and the catalogue, with the collaboration of members of the entity”.
After the resignation, there have been some public discussions about the possibility of electronic voting: Huerga sent a letter to the members explaining that his proposal had been voted down, which Gomila made public on social networks explaining that there is no are against, but do not believe that an acting board is legitimate to agree to it and that it is hasty because the census is not up to date. Huerga assures that the census is not so outdated and can be done.
Next week, the assembly will begin to speak.
