Xavier Trias is drawing to a close in his final days as a very prominent figure in Catalan politics over the last four decades. Although some still do not believe it, he assures that the time to say goodbye has arrived, very close but still without a fixed date. On the eve of that farewell postponed several times, he agreed to take stock of his long career. Tomorrow, April 2, Xavier Trias will be in bookstores, in conclusion (published by arallibres), the book in which the writer and lawyer Jordi Cabré i Trias puts in black and white the fifteen conversations held by uncle and nephew, since October from last year until mid-January, on a table in the Farga cafeteria on Beethoven Street, converted for many years into the unofficial office of the former mayor of Barcelona.
The author and his character set out to do “something different”, so to speak using that peculiar and often imitated way of speaking of Xavier Trias, of whom one discovers that he is good at imitations (especially that of the former Minister of Finance). Cristobal Montoro). A dialectical give and take without concessions between two sovereignists of different generations who agree on many things but who disagree on many others, for example on the way to move towards independence, an undisguised tension between confrontation, on the one hand, and dialogue. and the pact, on the other.
La Vanguardia shares one more of those conversations on the eve of the book going on sale, whose first copies, fresh from the press, reach the hands of the writer and the politician at the same moment that this meeting takes place. This is not a memoir. Throughout its 163 pages, Jordi Cabré and Xavier Trias project their vision of a long period in the history of Catalonia and Spain, with special emphasis on the stages marked by the arrival of Trias to the mayor's office, his replacement by Ada Colau, the procés, the return of the former mayor to win last year's municipal elections and “the mischief” starring Jaume Collboni with the support of Ada Colau and the popular Daniel Sirera and, finally, the complicated (and still unfinished) negotiation to expand the government of the city of Barcelona.
“We underestimate the power of the State, its ability to punish us,” says Trias. “We underestimate our power,” Cabré replies. The politician insists that the rearmament of the independence movement depends on the ability to “be influential” in a State that, on the other hand, the author of the book does not believe can be reformed. “Time will prove us right and the Spanish State will realize that the relationship with Catalonia cannot continue like this, it will fall under its own weight,” insists Trias, convinced that in the confrontation “you have to be intelligent” and that In short, “agreeing is not giving up.”
The writer attributes to one of his many uncles – Xavier Trias is part of one of those large families, with 12 siblings – a clinical eye that perhaps has to do with his training as a pediatrician. The politician, however, uses irony and assures that “I have been wrong about almost everyone.” And he gives an example: “Rajoy. "I have spent my entire life telling my party that he was a good guy." It was the opinion of the former leader of the PP from someone well regarded by many of his opponents... “until I tell them that I am an independentist, then they lose their nerve.”
The last 22 years of Xavier Trias's political career, since in autumn 2002 he accepted the challenge of contesting the mayoralty for the first time from the PSC, have passed in the Barcelona City Council (with the parenthesis of the period between the 2019 municipal elections to his reappearance in the 2023 elections). The book dedicates many of its pages to Trias's unrewarded victory at the polls and the "go for them" that, according to the author, they perpetrated on the figure of the winner of those elections PSC, BComú and the PP. Jordi Cabré reveals to readers a confession from Trias himself: “The invested mayor (Collboni) received him in his office and asked for his forgiveness.” “You must think that, since I am Catholic, I forgive easily,” interpreted the politician, who in a way is understanding of Jaume Collboni's attitude. “At some point he decided that he would be mayor at whatever price he wanted.”
Xavier Trias does not hide that from the same night of those elections it was in his mind to govern the four years of the mandate with the PSC (nothing about dividing the mayorship for two years each). In the end it couldn't be - his greatest incomprehension is dedicated to the gesture of the popular Daniel Sirera, who led to Collboni's investiture - but it is difficult to imagine Trias as someone who holds a grudge, if anything only against those who made him a victim of Operation Catalunya. “Even if they don't think like him or are his adversaries, there is an intelligent sense in Xavier Trias' politics: not to divide,” says the author of the book.
