Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the Tinell Pact, the Catalunya Europa Foundation held on Thursday 14 December an event to commemorate the agreement that gave rise to the first Catalan and left-wing government in the Generalitat de Catalunya chaired by Pasqual Maragall, and symbolized the political alternation after a long period of twenty-three years of Jordi Pujol’s rule.
The act "Maragall President of the Catalan Government and left. 20 Years of the Tinell Pact", was held at the Barcelona Architects' Association and brought together the protagonists of the historic agreement signed on 14 December 2003 at the Tinell fair in Barcelona, among the leaders of the three formations of the new government, Pasqual Maragall (PSC), Josep Lluís Carod-Rovira (ERC), and Joan Saura (ICV-EUiA).
With the aim of commemorating the anniversary looking forward, a choral event has been held with eight prominent voices in their respective professional fields, to analyze with different perspectives, the impact of that government’s policies on Catalan society , and what is the legacy that survives twenty years later.
Is your legacy still valid? How has it influenced Catalan and Spanish politics? What was the leadership of Pasqual Maragall? Is a new left-wing pluralist majority now possible in Catalonia? To answer these and other questions, the political scientists Mireia Grau, Júlia Miralles de Imperial, and Jordi Muñoz participated in the event; economists Carles Rivera and Eloi Serrano; businessman Marcel Prunera; journalist Roger Palá; and scientist Pastora Martínez Samper.
The event was moderated by the journalist Milagros Pérez Oliva, member of the Board of Trustees of the Catalunya Europa Foundation, and the closing ceremony was given by the president of the Foundation, Airy Maragall Garrigosa.
The event brought together several members of the governments of the tripartite between PSC, ERC and ICV, such as the former president of the Generalitat, José Montilla, one of the signatories of the Tinell Pact, the former counsellor Joan Saura, and up to twelve former counsellors of the different tripartite governments: Ernest Maragall, Antonio Castells, Montse Tura, José María Vallès, Carmen Figueras, Catalina Mieras, José María Rañé, Salvador Milano, Francisco Baltasar, Anna Simó, Juan Manuel Tresserras and Xavier Vendrell.
In addition, the current Minister of Justice, Rights and Memory attended. Gemma Ubasart, the head of the opposition in the Parliament, Salvador Illa, the presidents of the ERC parliamentary groups, Josep Maria Jové, and of En Comú Podem, Jéssica Albiach, the deputies in the Congress Gerardo Pisarello, Aina Vidal and Júlia Boada , the general secretary of CCOO in Catalonia, Javier Pacheco, and former deputies such as Joan Herrera, Joan Ridao, Jaume Bosch, Jordi Guillot or Laia Ortiz.
The agreement of the Tinell Pact that emerged from the elections to the Catalan Parliament on 16 November 2003 allowed Pasqual Maragall to be inaugurated president of the Generalitat from 2003 to 2006. A stage in which the new government printed numerous changes and transformations with a new look at Catalonia and relations with the State (Reform of the Statute, Law on Neighborhoods, National Education Pact, Arts Council, Immigration Pact, Strategic agreement for the internationalization of the Catalan economy, promotion of the Housing Law or modernization of management, planning of laws and equipment, or more dialogue with society, among others).
