Catalonia's odd couple: rivals for regional power

They're about as similar to each other as chalk and cheese. One is photogenic and dynamic, possesses an eternal "Kennedy" look, speaks several languages, holds a college degree, talks self-confidently and uses impeccable Catalan. The other is uncomfortable in front of the cameras, looks clumsy, and stumbles over Catalan grammar to such an extent that even schoolchildren joke about it.

The two political biographies competing in the race for Catalan legislative elections, which hold the key to the regional premiership, come from very different social backgrounds. Artur Mas, the head of the center-right nationalists of CiU, is a child of Catalonia's small industrial bourgeoisie, which went into decline following the successive crises of the 1970s and subsequent decades.

Montilla's stumbling Catalan grammar is the subject of school-yard jokes

Artur Mas is all toothpaste-ad smiles with a talent for endless sentences

José Montilla, the Socialist incumbent, originates from Andalusian immigration to Catalonia, which was strong between the 1950s and 1970s. He is one of those people whom the writer Paco Candel referred to as "els altres catalans" ("the other Catalans"). Montilla, who was born in a small town in Córdoba province and moved to Barcelona when he was 17, has been regional premier since 2006, something which just three years earlier, when his predecessor Pasqual Maragall had the job, seemed as remote as the possibility of a black man sitting inside the Oval Office at the White House.

But that is where the differences between the chalk and the cheese end. Both contenders share many traits, regardless of how election campaigns tend to underscore their differences. Both are, in fact, shy and introverted people. They go along with the political theatricals because it's part of the job, but deep down they hate it. After all, they are heirs to a long-running program whose top-billed stars for two solid decades were the media-savvy Jordi Pujol of CiU (who ruled the region between 1980 and 2003) and his successor, the Catalan Socialist Maragall. Both Mas and Montilla have had to deal with the legacy left behind by these "enlightened divas," and both have refused to take up this management style, happy instead to be efficient handlers of public matters - even if it looks less glamorous to the public. Both suffered for it at first, yet it would seem that they have finally found an inner balance and feel comfortable reciting their corresponding lines in the play.

In recent days, both men made cameo appearances in the satirical television program Polònia , which airs on TV-3 and enjoys notable audience ratings. As a guest on the show, Montilla had no qualms about imitating his double, Sergi Mas, who always portrays him as a boring guy with a penchant for bad jokes. For his part, Artur Mas was all toothpaste-commercial smiles and displayed his talent for long sentences with endless clauses, just like his own comedy stand-in, Bruno Oro.

Yet neither politician has ever accepted his television caricature. Montilla considers himself significantly more efficient than the empty, apathetic and slightly dumb fictional stand-in that represents him on Polònia , while Mas has said it is "unfair" to portray him as an arrogant, self-complacent heartthrob. He even confessed that he wished he had some kind of tic or pronunciation problem like other real-life politicians, so that his double could come across as more human. Yet, in the end, both men showed enough goodwill to accept the invitation to the show, and even (apparently, at least) had a great time.

Ultimately, what is at stake on November 28 is more a matter of proportion in the ingredients than a change of recipes for the region. Regardless of whether Mas or Montilla ends up in charge, it does not appear that Catalonia is going to become an independent nation anytime soon - now that would be a sudden change in the menu. There will foreseeably be a few seismic movements in that direction with the candidacy of former Barcelona soccer club president Joan Laporta, now a pro-independence activist. But in principle, the main thing that is keeping Montilla and Mas awake at night is the classic problem of regional elections: abstention.

At political rallies, Mas grows larger and Montilla seems to shrink. The candidate for CiU has managed to wrest the idea of change, once the rallying point of the left, from the Socialists (who currently hold the greatest amount of power at the regional and municipal level). The Socialist reply to this situation was rushed and politically invalid, besides constituting a bad pun: "Artur Mas de lo mismo" (or "Artur Mas (more) of the same"). As things stand right now, if people identify anything with "the same," it is the Socialist-led three-party government that has been in power for the last seven years. But besides circumstances, there are biographical reasons for the different perception of how either man deals with political speeches.

Let us take a look at Mas. In a 15-minute address, he conveyed a single message to his 1,300 followers in Premià de Mar: that his people do not indulge in the kind of gratuitous insults that his adversaries revel in. "We will respond to every snub with a proposal, to every jibe with a project, and to every banana skin placed in our way with a smile." A smile: that is the slogan of these elections, and CiU's logo picks up on it: two eyes and a nose formed by the coalition's acronym, with a smiling mouth underneath. The Catalan nationalists were lately running short on sympathy, and Artur Mas, with the wind from opinion surveys in his favor, is working to redress that. No more aggressive videos like in the 2003 campaign. Better to conduct a calm, positive campaign without too many commitments.

After all, this is Mas' favorite territory. This French-educated man learned how to debate without having to raise his voice. He was a latecomer to politics: he joined Convergència Democràtica in 1987, at age 31, but even then he was not sure that he would devote his life to it. After getting a degree in economics, he worked as a technician in the regional government's trade department. Later he was a city councilor in Barcelona, but it was not until 1993, when he was leader of the municipal opposition, that he decided to become a full-time politician. From then on, his career progressed in a linear fashion, with no twists or setbacks. He became a deputy in the Catalan parliament in 1995, and was placed in charge of the regional government's planning department, then the economy department, and in 2001 headed up the premier's office. The following year he was a candidate to the premiership in the 2003 elections, which he lost to Maragall, falling again to Montilla in 2006. He has called these last seven years "the desert crossing" - a personal journey that he embarked on in a bad mood, but which he now says has supplied him with a useful dose of humility. Mas fails to explain what he will do if he loses a third time; he seems to have dispelled that possibility from his mind - until November 29, at least.

Let us now turn to Montilla as he faces 1,600 followers inside the sports arena in Badalona, in the neighborhood of Llefià, which the conservative Popular Party (PP) has turned into a paradigm of the conflict caused by immigration. Wearing a dark suit, a white shirt and a striped tie, he looks small in this setting, especially when Felipe González - the former prime minister and still a dominant figure in Spanish politics despite being formally retired - takes the podium to deliver a 45-minute address about the crisis and the necessary cutbacks (without making any reference to the Catalan elections, by the way).

Montilla seems to opt for the attitude of the boxer who aims straight for his opponent's gut with messages like: "Mas is not trustworthy because he could make a pact with either the PP or [the left-wing republicans of] Esquerra Republicana." And he ends on a conventional note: "The challenge I put to you is possible and necessary. Together, we can win this fight." He gets some courteous applause, even as Felipe González gets an ovation.

Why is Montilla so unenthusiastic at rallies? Because that is just not his natural setting, just like the chamber is not, either. He is a man of many silences who likes to quote a Chinese proverb: "Do not break the silence unless it is in order to improve it." His motto is listen and act.

Montilla also had a deficient education. In 1971, when the family moved from Puente Genil (Córdoba) to Sant Joan Despí, he dropped out of high school and started working at a graphic-arts firm. He went back to school a year later, and passed his college entrance examination. He enrolled in economics, but eventually abandoned his studies, and later did the same with law. His political education is based on his membership of left-wing parties. At age 17, while the country was still under Franco, he joined the Communists of PCE(i), and later, in 1974, the similarly minded PSUC. Four years later he became a cardholding member of the PSC Catalan Socialist Party. Oddly enough, he had little to say about his time in the underground - something that clearly distinguishes him from Mas - in the recently published book Descubriendo a Montilla (or Discovering Montilla), by Gabriel Pernau. Clearly, epics are not his forte.

After joining the Socialists, he started holding positions of growing responsibility in public office. In 1985 he became mayor of Cornellà, and renewed the position five times, for a total of 19 years. In 1994 he was appointed the party's organization secretary, and three years later, he became president of the provincial authority of Barcelona. In 2004 he was made industry minister by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, a portfolio he held until 2006. On November 24 of that same year, Montilla became the Catalan premier. It is hard to believe, but Montilla says that he did not go after these posts, but that it was circumstance that pushed him toward them. In any case, it cannot be denied that he has a great talent for being in the right place at the right time.