Josep Piqué Camps was one of the most prominent Catalan politicians of the second half of the 20th century and the man who could have changed the course of the Spanish right if things had turned out differently. Endowed with a quick and brilliant intelligence, equipped with a wide culture and possessing a great talent for analyzing any situation, Piqué was destined for public affairs from a young age. His classmates at the university - at that time he was a member of the PSUC, the main opposition party to Franco - remember his oratorical ability and his charisma.
His father, a small businessman who was mayor of his hometown, Vilanova i la Geltrú, during the transition, before the first municipal elections, explained that a very young Josep helped him write his inauguration speech in 1976. Piqué jumped to the arena of big politics in 1996, after having demonstrated his academic excellence and his ability in the business world. As a result of the Majestic Pact signed by the PP and Convergència i Unió to form a stable government majority after many years of socialist government, José Mª Aznar proposed to the independent Piqué to be Minister of Industry, a signing that had the approval of Jordi Pujol, then preferred partner of the leader of the right.
The man from Vilanova was not a member of Convergència but he was very close to Catalan nationalism and had been director general of Industry of the Generalitat between 1986 and 1988, with the councilors Joan Hortalà (of ERC) and Macià Alavedra, a key figure of the convergent leadership. In the municipal elections of 1991, Piqué came in last place in the candidacy of CiU de Vilanova i la Geltrú, and in penultimate place in those of 1995. In the general elections of 1996, Piqué voted for CiU.
Chairman of the Ercros Group, Piqué became president of the Cercle d'Economia in July 1995. Holding this position, he had made a great impression on Aznar and his wife, on one of the popular leader's visits to the prestigious Barcelona think tank. His seductive and open-minded manner fitted perfectly into a Cabinet that had to emphasize centrism since it depended on the votes of the CiU and the PNV. It was no coincidence that, in July 1998, Piqué added to his Industry portfolio that of spokesman minister. His role was essential to create the image of a moderate right and, at times, it seemed that Piqué had cards to opt for Aznar's succession. In Aznar's second legislature, he was appointed Foreign Minister, the stage of greatest projection for him. Later, he went to the Ministry of Science and Technology. He once explained that “I stopped being a communist when I started to know something about economics, so I became a liberal”.
In October 2002, he assumed the presidency of the PP of Catalonia and Aznar entrusted him with the toughest and most thankless task: to be the head of the list in the regional elections of November 2003, the first without Pujol. The change of scale was not easy for a Piqué who had stepped on the halls of international politics with satisfaction, but he did his best to change the focus and dynamics of a party that was always marginal in Catalan society. He tried, together with his faithful squire Francesc Vendrell, to give a Catalanist coloration to the popular ones. Against the will of the state leadership of the PP, he participated in the initial work for the reform of the Statute promoted by President Maragall, but was ordered from Madrid to leave the consensus; the popular ones decided to climb the mountain from which they have not yet descended.
His discrepancies with the management reached a dead end in the summer of 2007, with Ángel Acebes in the general secretariat. So Piqué abandoned his political responsibilities and turned to business. His dream of a Spanish right that embraced Catalanism and moderation was impossible. In private, before the process, he anticipated that some decisions made in Madrid would take their toll. He was not wrong.
