“Choque de cerebros en la sección de opinión de El Pais”, escriu en el seu blog l’exarticulista del diari jacobí Arcadi Espada, “Aun estoy reponiéndome. El crítico Jordi Gracia da a luz una noticia sensacional: Josep Pla alabó a Mussolini. El artículo campanudo y oh la la reproduce unas frases de 1940 en Arriba. Mucho peor que cualquiera de estas frases es la obscena impostación de dolor del crítico Gracia. “Es una noticia descorazonadora...” se permite. Josep C. Vergés, hijo del editor, escribe una carta al periódico. Da otra noticia sensacional: hay dos Pla. El crítico Gracia responde. Continua dolorido y doloroso, sin mayor noticia, aunque se percibe un escalofrío: tampoco conoce el artículo de José Pla Comas y vete a ver si... Al crítico Gracia de la Universidad de Barcelona sólo le queda elegir entre el atrevimiento del ignorante o la manipulación del malvado que oculta la única hipótesis conocida”. L’espanyolista fundador del filonazi Ciudadanos de Cataluña s’autoretrata preferint un Pla mussolinià: “Le va mejor a su cabeza un fascista que un cobarde”. Ma non é vero ni ben trovato.

El 1940 hi havia dos Pla, Josep Pla i José Pla Comas, de la Delegación de Prensa y Falange de Girona, que publicava a Los Sitios “Banderas que volvían”, molt utilitzat contra Josep Pla, però que el diari va admetre finalment, el 5 de setembre de 1975, que l’havia escrit el Pla feixista i no el Pla liberal. El lletraferit Gracia ho reconeix: “Josep Pla escribió en Arriba no menos de 13 artículos sobre temas casi siempre inocuos, excepto uno sobre Mussolini, que es el que yo citaba con algún detalle porque era el más doloroso de todos. Ni hay confusión alguna con el otro José Pla ni se trata de ningún drama. Se trata de un dato histórico de comprobación tan elemental que basta cotejar los artículos con la hermosa colección de la Obra Completa”. La comprobació, també elemental, és que l’article de Mussolini no hi apareix: “No aparece rastro del artículo en su Obra Completa” com confessava a l’acabar el seu article. Potser més honest com el començava: “A veces las cosas más elementales pasan inadvertidas”.

Elemental és que no informava als lectors que hi havia dos Pla, un falangista i un liberal, i nogensmenys elemental, que l’inquisidor no té cap prova, basant-se en l’Obra Completa on l’article de Mussolini no hi és. Però el meu pare, Josep Vergés Matas, explica al volum 45 de l’Obra Completa com va ser escrit, obligat per la Gestapo, que era qui instaurava l’Estat policíac a Espanya: “A Josep Pla li havia passat un fet ben desagradable a Madrid on fou detingut i obligat a escriure articles encomiàstics sobre Mussolini. Déu meu que és dura la memòria!” L’interessant és el que va arribar a dir Josep Pla a punta de pistola el 1940, quan Hitler, l’aliat de Franco, guanyava la guerra: “Las cosas son como son y no como quiere que sean los dictados de una propaganda que choca con nuestra memoria inmediata de la manera más viva. El fascismo ha creado en Europa un tipo de hombre nuevo, combativo, audaz, poco amigo de las fórmulas demoliberales. Ha existido siempre en España un tipo pintoresco de conservador dotado de una especie de congènita incapacidad para conservar y de una brillante tendencia a ser fácilmente devorado. Mussolini ha cerrado, en superación, el periodo liberal de la historia de la Europa moderna, es decir ha cerrado la etapa del conservador que no sabía conservar. España se encuentra en circumstancias parecidas de Italia”. Josep Pla explicava al periodista Manuel Brunet, com podria la revista del meu pare, Destino, sobreviure el feixisme: “Hem de fer una col.laboració irònica.” Ironia que segueix ben actual en un Estat de conservadors que no saben conservar i de marxistes manqués que donen carnets de bona conducta com els feixistes que també perseguien amb odi visceral, com recordava Josep Pla el 1940, tots els demòcrates liberals.


Josep C. Vergés
18.6.06


Pla’s Mussolini (Versió en anglès)

In 1940 there were two Plas, Josep Pla and Jose Pla Comas, of the Press and Fascism Committee in Girona

“Clash of brains in the op ed pages of El Pais,” writes in his blog the former columnist of the Jacobin paper Arcadi Espada, “I am still recovering. The critic Jordi Gracia uncovered a sensational piece of news: Josep Pla praised Mussolini. The bell tolling and oh la la article reproduces phrases from 1940 in Arriba. Much worse than any of these is the obscene pretence of pain by critic Gracia. “It’s disheartening news...” he permits himself. Josep C. Verges, son of the publisher, writes a letter to the periodical with more sensational news: There are two Plas. Critic Gracia answers, still hurt and hurting, with nothing new, except one feels the shivers because he does not know the article by Jose Pla Comas and what if... Critic Gracia of Barcelona University has a stark choice between the daring of the ignoramus or the manipulation of the evildoer who hides the only known hypothesis.” The Spanish nationalist founder of neo-Nazi Ciudadanos de Cataluña reveals himself by preferring a Mussolinian Pla: “I see him better as a fascist than as a coward.” Ma non é vero ni ben trovato.

In 1940 there were two Plas, Josep Pla and Jose Pla Comas, of the Press and Fascism Committee in Girona, who published in Los Sitios “The Flags Returned,” much used against Josep Pla until the newspaper finally admitted, on 5th September 1975, that it was written by the fascist Pla, not the liberal Pla. Iliteratto Gracia admits as much: “Josep Pla wrote in Arriba at least 13 articles on mostly innocuous subjects except one on Mussolini, which is the one I quoted in some detail because it was the most painful of all. There is absolutely no confusion with the other Jose Pla and nothing to dramatise. Merely a historical fact of elementary proof by just contrasting the articles with the beautiful edition of his Complete Works” Proof, also elementary, that the Mussolini article is not there as he confesses at the end of the text: “There is no trace of the article in his Complete Works.” More honest is how he began the piece: “Sometimes we overlook the most elementary things.”

Elementary like not telling reader that there were two Plas, one fascist and one liberal, and just as elementary that the Inquisitor has no proof, basing himself on the Complete Works where the Mussolini article is absent. But my father Josep Verges Matas, explains in Volume 45 of the Complete Works how it came to be written, forced by the Gestapo, which was setting up the Police State in Spain: “Josep Pla had an awful experience in Madrid where he was arrested and forced to write articles praising Mussolini. Oh God how hard those memories!” What is interesting is how much Josep Pla managed to say at gun point in 1940, when Hitler, Franco’s ally, was winning the war: “Things are as they are and not like propaganda wants them to be which clashes with our close memory quite clearly. Fascism has created in Europe a new type, violent, headstrong, and an enemy of democratic liberal formulas. In Spain there has always been a laughable type of conservative equipped with some congenital incapacity to conserve and with an unmatched trait to let himself be devoured. Mussolini has finished, in excess, the liberal period of European history, that is he has finished the era of the conservative who does not know how to conserve. Spain is living through the same circumstances as Italy.” Josep Pla explained to journalist Manuel Brunet, how my father’s magazine, Destino, could survive fascism: “We must write with irony.” Irony which is just as necessary today in a State where conservatives do not know how to conserve and Marxists manqués give out good conduct certificates just like the fascists who also persecuted with a visceral hatred, as Josep Pla pointed out in 1940, all liberal democrats.


Josep C. Vergés
18.6.06