Catholic, Catalanist and investigated for money laundering

The Pujols are in mourning. The matriarch, Marta Ferrusoladied this Monday at the age of 89 suffering from pneumonia. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2018, her health had deteriorated greatly in recent years and she lived quietly in her residence in Barcelona with her husband, former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia. They married on June 4, 1956 and they had seven children: Jordi, Marta, Josep, Pere, Oriol, Mireia and Oleguer.

Catalanist and very conservative, Marta was the eldest of three siblings, children of Josep and Carme, a married couple who work for a men’s clothing store, Paños Ramos. She studied at the Inmaculada Concepció in Barcelona, ​​finished high school and helped her husband during his term in office by working as a Head of the CDC sports sector and how President of the Organizing Committee of the Children’s Festival. He also had a gardening company, Hidroplant, which renovated the grass at Camp Nou (although the case ended up in court and they had to rip it up and replant it), among other public and controversial works.

A fervent Catholic, she attended the canonization of Josemaría Escrivà de Balaguer, founder of Opus Dei, and was investigated for alleged money laundering along with her husband and some of her children. During the investigation it was revealed that Marta had ordered transfers between 1995 and 1998 using religious language as a cover, such as “two missals from her library for the parish priest”, which the police interpreted as a transfer of two million pesetas (12,000 euros) to her son Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, who allegedly directed the operations of the family fortune.

In 2020, she suffered a terrible fall at her holiday home in Queralbs and had to be transferred by helicopter in serious condition to the Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona. Shortly afterwards, her defence presented a medical report to the National Court explaining that Marta Ferrusola had been suffering from Alzheimer’s since 2018 and that, due to her dementia and brain injuries caused by multiple trauma, he did not have “the capacity for judgment or decision-making preserved.” In May 2021, National Court judge Santiago Pedraz agreed to file the case for Ferrusola due to his health condition.

The last image of Ferrusola was published by her son Oriol a month ago on Facebook. In the image she appeared with Jordi Pujol, who was celebrating his birthday: “Father, today you are 94, and 4 days ago you were celebrating your 68th wedding anniversary with your mother. What joy and happiness,” commented the youngest of her sons.

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