The first wine they bring him to taste is a Riesling. By name, Ekam. Raül Bobet, the owner of the Castilló d'Encús winery, in Talarn, explains to the president of the Generalitat that Ekam in Sanskrit means unity. Does not go with seconds. At least his sneer doesn't give away any clues. "We Catalans need to do our best. We are not good at making pineapple", he says minutes later. Nor is he talking about politics, but about the world of oenology. "Since the 15th century, the Catalans have been going from civil war to civil war and we always find the moment to shoot the one next door", corroborates Pere Aragonès.
The head of the Government is in the region of Pallars Jussà. The following day, Saturday, he visits the last county he has left to set foot in since he is president: Alta Ribagorça. It is the least populated in Catalonia, with around 4,000 inhabitants, it does not arrive. Therefore, it will have been in all 42 counties. They will be 43 when the recent creation of the Lluçanès is published in the Official Journal of the Generalitat of Catalonia (DOGC).
- Are you expressly delaying the officialization of Lluçanès to give them to have been to all the counties?
-No! I sign the law, but the jurists of the Parliament always look at things twenty times so that nothing escapes.
He has understood the coin.
For two days, on Friday and Saturday, the republican passed through the Pyrenean regions of Pallars Jussà, Pallars Sobirà, Alta Ribagorça and Val d'Aran. He has done so in a context of drought, but with the political unity – social, not independenceist – of the Parliament under his arm, with the urgent measures against the water shortage agreed upon.
"The citizens of this area are concerned, not so much about drinking water, but about water for extensive livestock farming and the fires that result from it," says the president. Three times he has sat around a table with all the mayors and mayors of the first three counties. The last one was a breakfast, with the people of Vilaller, Vall de Boí and Pont de Suert, the three municipalities of Alta Ribagorça. The Escales reservoir is at 37% of its capacity. The management of the swamp does not depend on the Generalitat, but the 50 million euros that the Government will allocate in financial aid will be available to the municipalities of "the whole of Catalonia". No distinctions.
Everything indicates that the call to request them will be sooner rather than later and the mayor of Tremp, Maria Pilar Cases, is one of the first to demand them from the president in public, at an ERC meeting in the city on Friday evening . Here, Aragonès takes a break from the institutional visit and puts on his match jacket. They give him a good blast of the horn, in protest. But in general it is well received: in Sort, Rialp, Talarn, Pont de Suert, Taüll, Salardú.
The most grateful are the elderly. In Talarn, they change the “butterflyer!” that he has heard in places with more demographic weight for a “Oh, how handsome he is! Oh, no one in the house”. "It is", not "is". It is hot in the camp and they show him that they are well informed: "Now that you are starting to put air conditioners in the schools, let's see if you put them here!". Laughter, with Rummikub waiting and Robert Redford watching from the TV screen, from a film broadcast by channel Trece, of the Episcopal Conference. Next door is the village women's association. sew "If my mother saw it, she would stay there," says the president.
Photos with townspeople and authorities are mandatory. Aragonès, in almost all of them, holds the index of the right hand with the index and thumb of the left. And take a step forward. On Friday, always the right; on Saturday, the left. Phenomenon without possible explanation, if not that the president is hiding Anna, Dolors, Marta and Aranu, the press and protocol team that accompanies him these days, a possible overload on the hip.
In Taüll he is received by the authorities and the townspeople. The Romanesque churches of Sant Climent and Santa Maria celebrate 900 years since they were consecrated. Before entering the first, Leonor stops the president and shows him a black and white photo. She, her father and Joan Coromines, the philologist, who settled in Pineda de Mar for the last thirty years of his life, appear in front of the church. It is where Aragonès resides.
He reminds the press that the budgets foresee an investment to expand the Pallars hospital, in addition to the project to advance the Alt Urgell hospital and the "investments to gradually adapt the mountain resorts to the whole evolution climate we are suffering", as Boí-Taüll. Mind you, it says mountain resort, not ski resort.
Sergi Sebastia, owner of the company that bears his surname and that specializes in wood and prefabricated buildings with low energy consumption, also talks about drought. The Rialp company has spent 3 million euros on a wood sawmill for sheets.
They demand funds. Everywhere he goes he is asked. Without exception. Saturday evening he returns to Pineda with a handful of notes on his cell phone. The busyness of these issues and the multiple visits mean that he almost leaves the Pont de Suert with the key to the hotel room where he has stayed.
