Pujol urges Catalans to integrate immigrants at Junts youth tribute as Aliança Catalana rivalry grows
Former Catalan president Jordi Pujol, speaking at a Junts youth event in Planoles, called on Catalans to "integrate people who come from outside and unite," as the party faces a growing challenge from the anti-immigration Aliança Catalana led by Sílvia Orriols.
A tribute in the Pyrenees
Some 400 people gathered in Planoles, Girona, for an event organized by the Joventut Nacionalista de Catalunya (JNC), the youth wing of Junts per Catalunya. The ceremony honoured Jordi Pujol, the founder of Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya and Catalan president for 23 years. An oak tree (the former party's symbol) was planted, and leaders from across the post-convergent space attended, including Parliament president Josep Rull and Junts secretary general Jordi Turull, along with a cohort of former JNC secretaries general now in other parties.
Pujol's message
In a speech read by JNC council president Carlota Monfort, the 96-year-old Pujol said Catalonia's strength has never been uniformity but "the capacity to integrate, to add, to make very different people feel involved."
Never turn your adversaries into enemies. Do not confuse firmness with sectarianism, nor identity with exclusion.
He stressed the need to "maintain the language, transmit a culture, integrate people who come from outside and unite" Catalonia, framing integration as a historic achievement that must not be lost.
Political backdrop
The address comes as Junts sees Aliança Catalana, led by Sílvia Orriols, eating into its voter base with a hardline anti-immigration discourse. Pujol's plea for cohesion, echoing the old CDC motto "un sol poble" (one people), serves both as a defence of the convergent legacy and a warning to those tempted to mimic that rhetoric. Junts's official line has been to demand devolved immigration powers so Catalan language proficiency becomes a condition for renewing residence and work permits, a stance its leaders say is distinct from Aliança's platform.
A reuniting act
The event also functioned as a reunion of the "convergent diaspora." Former councillor Carles Campuzano (now a Republican Left deputy) and ex-MP Jordi Xuclà, among others, attended. Pujol was cleared of legal proceedings earlier this year on health grounds, and the tribute focused entirely on his governmental record and nation-building vision, skirting his family's ongoing judicial saga.
