Barcelona Llibres

This book sheds light on the rivalry and cooperation between Tierno Galván’s Madrid and Serra’s and Maragall’s Barcelona.

It is an attempt to look back at the figure of Enrique Tierno Galván, with all the light and shade that surrounded him, in his personal and political life. It also offers an analysis of the relations between Madrid and Barcelona – as well as between their mayors, Enrique Tierno Galván, Narcís Serra and Pasqual Maragall – always characterised by both collaboration and rivalry.

This was made possible by the first ever examination of the documents in Enrique Tierno Galván’s personal archive, given to Barcelona’s Arús Public Library by his son. Beyond the figure of Tierno Galván, the book places special emphasis on the sometimes fraught relationship the politician maintained with the city of Barcelona and, more specifically, with its mayors, Serra and Maragall. A review of the relevant periodicals library and archives reveal how they joined forces to overcome their respective empty municipal coffers and which were the most urgent and widest-reaching measures implemented in each city.

The book goes over the different stages in Tierno’s life in chronological order: the Spanish Civil War and the postwar period in Madrid; his anti-Francoist activism; his contact with the people close to Juan de Borbón in order to pave the way for the evolution from the Francoist regime to a parliamentary democracy; his brief time with the PSOE, from which he was expelled; his creation of the Partido Socialista del Interior, and then the Partido Socialista Popular; and, later, his nomination as a candidate for office at City Hall before, against all odds, he became the first mayor of Madrid after the restoration of municipal democracy.