“When I was little I wanted to be Caesar or Napoleon.” Manuel Valls became Prime Minister of France, which is not bad at all. Then he passed through the Barcelona City Council and, now, back in Paris, he has decided to practice his profession as a historian and has published El valor guiaba su paso (Funambulista), a profile of characters who have marked his way of thinking and exercising politician such as Charles V, Willy Brandt, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle or Torcuato Fernández-Miranda.
Tomorrow Valls will present the Spanish version of his book (which he originally wrote in French) in Madrid. The president of the Cercle del Liceu, Francisco Gaudier, found out and came forward. This afternoon, Gaudier invited Valls to lunch so that he could explain the details of Courage Guided His Steps to the Cercle partners with the collaboration of Enric Sierra, deputy director of La Vanguardia.
Valls had gone to talk about his book and he did, but current events surpassed literature and the former French prime minister spoke above all about politics, or rather, about the situation in Spain during the amnesty: “The historical story is very important. The PSOE, after its pact with Junts, has bought a very dangerous story by ascribing to the idea that in 1714 a war began between Catalonia and Spain, when in reality the War of Succession was a conflict between the Austrians and the Bourbons.
With this agreement, “the independentistas have won a very important battle,” stressed Valls, who comes from French socialism and cannot help but feel “astonished” by the fact that “the PSOE has accepted this situation.”
“The solution after the elections was not easy, but Pedro Sánchez's political opportunism is evident, because he has given up so much that he has created a dangerous situation that will have consequences. The amnesty for independence is not comparable to that of '77 and the Spaniards as a whole may pay for all of this," he noted.
And he warned that "if Spain breaks up, a domino effect could occur that affects the south of France and other European regions, because the connection on the continent is very fragile."
