Francisco García Prieto leans on a crutch to cross the street. Take a seat with difficulty. The rupture of a vertebra has him in pain and worries him much more than the judicial case he has been facing for eight years for allegedly appropriating FECAC funds. García Prieto presided for three decades a federation that brings together the Andalusian entities in Catalonia, organizes the April Fair of Catalonia and was, for years, the object of desire of the political class. "I could have been wrong, some accounts could have been done wrong ... But I haven't taken a penny," says García Prieto, born in La Dehesa (Minas de Riotinto, Huelva). At 77, he remains waiting for the Prosecutor's Office to specify its accusation for the alleged diversion of about two million euros between discounts with the drinks of the fair, credit card expenses and subsidies from public administrations with which he knew how to deal like nobody else.
Ostracized since 2013, when the alleged irregularities came to light and the foundation's board forced him to resign, García Prieto is a man of power. "If there's one thing I've done in life, it's command. I've sent everything I could. And I miss him." At the height of his influence, leaders of all parties (but especially socialists and convergents) sought his company without disguise at the fairgrounds for his supposed ascendancy over voters of Andalusian origin in Catalonia. "It is possible that the politicians took the photo with me in search of the Andalusian vote, or at least as a way to imply that they were good with the Andalusians. But I've never told anyone who to vote for."
He maintained a relationship with characters such as Jordi Pujol, a man "with gift and power" who vehemently supported the April Fair and for whom he feels admiration: "Now there are good or bad managers. But there is a lack of race politicians like him." Both fallen in disgrace around the same time, they still maintain fluid contact today. "With Pujol we have a meal pending for when we both get out of all this," he says in reference to two judicial processes whose end is not yet in sight and that both face with the forces increasingly depleted by age and physical deterioration.
He says that another former Catalan president, the socialist Pasqual Maragall, offered him to be a deputy in the Parliament. "They told me he wanted to see me and go to his office. I told him that if he wanted to talk he had to come to FECAC headquarters. He did it. We were together for 10 minutes. We didn't understand each other and I turned down his offer." García Prieto felt much more comfortable at the helm of the federation, a platform of influence that allowed him to have the top leaders of the parties eating from his hand. "I've gotten along with almost everyone. I've also been very political, I've played my tricks," he confesses.
His proximity to power allowed him to start agreements and subsidies with almost all administrations: the municipalities that have successively hosted the April Fair, the Diputació de Barcelona, the Generalitat and even the Junta de Andalucía. Josep Lluís Núñez (former president of Barça), Pujol and García Prieto himself were baptized, in the press of the time, as the three "untouchable" presidents of Catalonia.
Waiting for the Prosecutor's Office
The generous subsidies with which the April Fair was showered are now, in part, under suspicion. Last November, a judge in Barcelona concluded an investigation that began in 2015 and was archived twice. The magistrate now says that there are indications of crime to bring García Prieto and seven other people (including his two sons) to trial for acting "for profit" and taking money from the FECAC. The events, of different nature, occurred from 2008. The former president and his children allegedly seized more than 429,000 euros in discounts and bonuses that the organization had agreed with the company Damm for the supply of beer for the fair. García Prieto obtained, according to the court order, another 1.2 million from income from the sale of beverages. He also took advantage of his absolute control over the FECAC and the Foundation of the same name – with which the agreements of the fair were formally signed – to "mendaciously justify" public aid.
The case is still reopened by the efforts of the Prosecutor's Office, which will soon specify whether it is expected to request prison sentences. The judge came to decree a seizure of assets for two million, which was revoked after the request of the defense. García Prieto admits that accounting irregularities could have occurred because before "things were done differently" and "there was more compadreo". He cites an example in the case: he paid with a FECAC credit card for the repair of his Audi A6 for 2,150 euros. He says that he previously notified the entity because they did not accept his card (it was not a visa) and that he refunded the amount immediately. He remembers that he always earned his living as a salesman, but regrets not having demanded payment as president of the FECAC, an unpaid position to which he dedicated half his life.
The man who drew a massive fair that, year after year and always according to the organization, closed with more than one million visitors attributes that personal success to the "envy" of people to whom he attributes his fall from grace.
He says he does not want to return to the FECAC, but regrets having lost the public speaker he enjoyed to dispatch, for example, with the procés: "It was a madness of four who explained a milonga to others. I didn't understand what was going on." And he is proud that current leaders continue to ask him his opinion on this or that mayor. He defends his legacy as Pujol tries to do, to which he returns again and again, intertwined lives that explain part of the power relations in contemporary Catalonia. "One day, [the former president] said that FECAC had made possible the integration of the Andalusians. I would say we bring everyone together. We made the Catalans arrive in Andalusia and the Andalusians arrive in Catalonia."
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