El hijo del chófer

In Catalonia, where Jordi Pujol won elections one after another and the media built the image of an oasis free of corruption, the trajectory of the journalist and lawyer Alfons Quintà (1943-2016) -literally reconstructed here by Jordi Amat- reflects a perverse crossroads of siege and power, money and influence peddling. Raised in the shadow of Josep Pla and a highly prestigious journalist during the Transition, over the years, thanks to his knowledge of the sewers of political and financial power, Quintà -a consummate artist of blackmail, harassment and manipulation- developed a prestigious media career, full, at the same time, of disturbing chiaroscuro. He was the first delegate in Catalonia for the newspaper El País, from where he uncovered the Catalan Banking case; He was the first director of the Catalan autonomous television (named because he knew about the backroom of power, according to his own confession); He also created El Observador, a medium akin to the convergent government, whose hegemony he ended up profoundly despising; and he ended his days, hardly being read, denouncing the cuts in health and the drift of the Procés. The tragic climax to this trajectory occurred in December 2016: Alfons Quintà, ailing, shot his ex-partner and then killed himself.