"You are such a sectarian! You are a disgrace! I want a copy of what you have taped, you are a sectarian full of prejudices, and who do you think you are laddie!" Jose Montilla took French leave, or is it Madrid leave?, from the interview with American based Xavier Sala i Martín, after calling the 17,000 victims claiming damages for the closure of Barcelona airport as "undocumented." The former minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism washes his hands of everything: negative business confidence with Zapatero, which had never happened with Aznar or Gonzalez, Audiovisual Law voted by his party PSC and taken to the Constitutional Court by him, the airport shutdown which hit tourism: "No, no, no, passengers some are tourists and others are not. I had no responsibilities; these are superficial criticism made by ignorance." The "Catalan minister" would have voted against transferring Barcelona airport to the Catalans if he had dared to go to Congress. The PSC presidential candidate does not know the Catalan hymn composed by Cinto Verdaguer: "Rose of April, darkie of the mountain, star of Montserrat." His supercilious answer: "I did not come to be examined of this." Altogether a presidential puncture.

When the American passed through the blender Josep Lluis Carod Rovira he did not lose his nerves like the candidate sent by Madrid, reminding the interviewer he had come up from 12 to 23 Parliamentarians and from 150,000 to 650,000 votes and he criticised the provincialism of the Catalan Establishment from a liberal viewpoint: "No need to say where we are going because they are going where we are. Their fatherland is not Spain but the Spanish market. I believe in a State the smaller the better, even if a Catalan one. Those who should manage are the entrepreneurs and they should manage well. Government should stop interfering and facilitate. Half of government paperwork is certificates solicited by other departments." On Jose Montilla: "I believe he will fail."

Artur Mas did not lose his nerves either, a Catalan nationalist by "decanting and gradual contagion. I am no longer that lad Jordi Pujol hand picked for the top job." Since he admits that politicians are the least valued profession he has gone to the notary public to certify he will never make a pact with the PP troglodytes, but it is all a little joke: "Going to the notary public is just an anecdote to give solemnity and formality. It is understood as the little cherry on the cake." Are we to believe him when he then repeats he will never pact with the PP? Will he stay with the little cherry of the notary promises or will he want the cake of power? If there is no pact, notary-wise, with the PP, which CiU has always done when they could, how can he with Esquerra whom he calls uncomfortable or PSC who make him red-faced with their mediocrity and cowardice on Catalonia?

From Casa de les Punxes writes lawyer Joan Gispert: "Thanks for your articles. By the way, whom would you recommend to vote? Many customers ask me. What do you think?" I am travelling in Europe and have already voted by post. Jose Montilla did not want my vote, despite my living in the Barcelona industrial belt because I am no lumpenproletariat. Artur Mas even less because he has already announced he is the party with most votes without waiting for the election or my vote. Josep Pique sells a party which hates Catalans and as Media Markt, excellent sellers, advertise "I'm not a fool." The communists have their hands stained in blood, not from the Civil War still but right now as I explained last Sunday in Diari de Girona. Josep Lluis Carod-Rovira, like Moliere's Monsieur Jourdain, has discovered that he speaks in prose which I think excellent declaring he is a liberal in a land of such conceited politicians who lose their nerves or win without letting us play the game. What a government of socialists and right wing Catalan nationalists we shall have to live through, a mix of shouting from Madrid and the notary's little cherries while they devour all our cake! I answer to Casa de les Punxes that much presidential material well deserves a big puncture.

(This article is also available in Catalan via the Racó Català website)

Link to original article on Racó Català by Josep C. Vergés [http://www.racocatala.cat/articles/12433] provided by:

Rob Trenator | http://trenator.blogspot.com