The former president of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol has participated this Monday in an act organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Government at the University of Barcelona. He has done so in a round table within the framework of a conference with which Catalonia encourages participation in the Conference on the Future of Europe and together with other former presidents such as Artur Mas, Carles Puigdemont (who has entered by videoconference from Belgium) or Quim Torra. For their part, both José Montilla and Pere Aragonès have missed the appointment alluding to agenda reasons, although the former has sent a video.
With this act Pujol has reappeared in public life hand in hand with the Government, after more than seven years apart in which he had not been invited to participate in any activity of official institutions, after in July 2014 he recognized that he and his family had kept undeclared money abroad for years. At that time Pujol renounced the powers that he had been assigned as former president, among others the pension of 86,000 euros per year, the office, the official car with driver and the title of ‘molt honorable’.
The seven years of ostracism have ended this Monday, when Pujol has been invited by the Government to a round table that has been the climax of the ‘Escort, Europe’ campaign, where the former presidents have spoken about the common European project seen from Catalonia . Together with him, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Victòria Alsina, who organized the debate, and the rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Guàrdia, host of the event, were photographed. Previously, some well-known former European deputies such as Oriol Junqueras (ERC), Toni Comín (Junts), Joan Colom (PSC) and Concepció Ferrer (Unió) also participated in another round table.
Although this has been the first time that Pujol has participated in a government event, the former founder and leader of Convergència had already been seen in other social events recently, such as last November, when in a debate organized by the newspaper Ara he rose from the public to make a point about what was exposed there. Last May, Pujol had also published an interview in the form of a book with the journalist Vicenç Villatoro, in which he spoke about his confession, his open cases for corruption or his vision of the independence process.
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