The two sides of Tierno Galván’s personality

Tierno Galván, Narcís Serra and other invited authorities at the San Isidro celebrations in 1981. © Imagen Fotógrafos / Biblioteca Pública Arús

In 2012, the son of Enrique Tierno Galván donated his father’s personal archive to Barcelona. This collection was entrusted to the Gran Logia Simbólica Española [Symbolic Grand Lodge of Spain] and the Arús Public Library, which specialises in Freemasonry and the workers’ movement. Barcelona City Council then signed an agreement with the Fundació Catalunya Europa to study and promote this archive, leading to a book by Àlex Masllorens that has now been published.

On Christmas Eve in 1985, Enrique Tierno Galván, the Mayor of Madrid, was gravely ill and in the terminal stages of kidney cancer. Nevertheless, he disregarded the advice of doctors and friends and chose to do what he had done for the previous six Christmas Eves: visit municipal workers on night shift. Following his wishes, they took him to Cibeles, but shortly after midnight, he collapsed and was unable to continue. He passed away three weeks later.

This is one of the episodes described by Àlex Masllorens in his recently published book about the enduring personality and idiosyncrasies of a man who cultivated the image of a friendly and understanding grandfather. Popularly known as “the old professor”, he did not always have the easy-going and kind demeanour that people imagined. He conducted himself like a gentleman, as they say, especially with women, but he liked to assert his superiority over other men. On one occasion, when Tierno had formally invited Rafael Escuredo, the President of the Government of Andalusia, to visit him, he greeted him with the remark, “And you, which city are you the mayor of?” Escuredo was offended and made a move to leave. Narcís Serra, who was present, had to intervene and managed to persuade the President of Andalusia to stay.

Book cover Book cover

At the other end of the spectrum, Ana Tutor, Tierno’s chief of staff, recounted that in her role she would enter the mayor’s office several times a day. She was always struck by the fact that he would stand up from his chair to walk her to the door and say goodbye.

In his book, Àlex Masllorens goes beyond the materials from Tierno Galván’s archives, incorporating information from other publications, press articles and his own conversations with municipal representatives. This has turned the volume into an engaging and well-researched biography of the former mayor of Madrid.

The author had a close relationship with Tierno and makes no attempt to conceal this. The book features a photograph of them together at the central meeting of the Catalan People’s Socialist Party (PSP) during the first general elections, which took place at the Palau d’Esports in Barcelona. Nonetheless, this does not prevent the author from exploring the complexities of Tierno Galván’s political career and true character – including his connection for several years with American intelligence services – while also offering original insights for the Catalan reader about what the subtitle promises: “The Madrid-Barcelona rivalry in the early democratic city councils”.

From Maragall’s “Madrid is leaving” to “Madrid has left”

Tierno did not have a particularly good relationship with Narcís Serra, the first democratic mayor of Barcelona. A telling photograph from the 1981 San Isidro festivities shows Tierno sitting alone in the front row of a bus filled with invited dignitaries, an empty seat beside him, while Narcís Serra sits just behind him. However, their lack of rapport was not just a matter of protocol; the book highlights other significant reasons for it. “To him, the other mayors were just kids who had to get the work done”, Serra told Masllorens during a conversation. Pasqual Maragall, on the other hand, got along better with Tierno.

In the same conversation between the book’s author and Narcís Serra, Serra revealed that Tierno considered Barcelona’s initiative to bid to host the 1992 Olympic Games to be “a crazy idea”. He added, “Madrid preferred to present its candidacy as the European Capital of Culture”.

In the words of Pasqual Maragall, as quoted by the author, “Barcelona (and, with even more challenges, Seville) paid dearly for its 1992 challenge against Madrid. The central capital became envious of the remarkable momentum Barcelona had gained and then accelerated its own projects”. This was done with clear support from the State for its public infrastructure programmes. Maragall noted in his book Refent Barcelona [Rebuilding Barcelona], published in January 1986 – a striking coincidence with the month of Tierno’s death – that at that time, Madrid was investing around 170 billion pesetas in sanitation, access roads, housing renovations, railway links and more, “while in Barcelona, including the metropolitan area, we were at roughly half that amount”.

The Mayor of Madrid putting on a top hat (bowler hat) at the 1985 carnival. The Mayor of Madrid putting on a top hat (bowler hat) at the 1985 carnival.

The book references the famous article by Maragall published in El País in February 2001, during Aznar’s absolute majority, titled “Madrid is leaving”. Two years later, in July 2003, the mayor – and future president of the Generalitat Government of Catalonia – published another article, aptly titled “Madrid has left”.

The Madrid-Barcelona rivalry in the early democratic city councils

Highlighting the consistently different treatment that the central government has given to Madrid and Barcelona, the book dedicates several chapters to this topic, especially concerning infrastructure – a situation that remained largely unchanged with the arrival of municipal democracy in 1979. On a page discussing the specific case of the underground system, Àlex Masllorens writes:

“One particularly contentious issue where Madrid received preferential treatment from the outset, while Barcelona was clearly disadvantaged, was in municipal public transport”.

Law 32/1979, dated 8 November, was specifically aimed at addressing an issue in Madrid. It clearly stated that investments for the metropolitan railway in Madrid would be funded by the State from the moment the law came into effect. It also stipulated that infrastructure costs would continue to be covered by the State. This decision represented a significant injustice to Barcelona and, to a lesser extent, to Seville, which had its own underground service since 1968.

The disparity in treatment was particularly evident in the development and expansion of the service in the capital during the Franco regime, and it continued to be apparent in the years that followed. The increase in the number of stations and the overall improvement of the service have been markedly uneven between Madrid and Barcelona.

Els papers de Tierno Galván. La rivalitat Madrid-Barcelona dels primers ajuntaments democràtics[The Papers of Tierno Galván: The Madrid-Barcelona Rivalry in the First Democratic City Councils]. 

Àlex Masllorens

Barcelona City Council, with the collaboration of Fundació Catalunya Europa, 2024. 288 pages.

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