Marta Ferrusola

Ferrusola was born in Barcelona in 1935^[1] to Josep Ferrusola Pascual and Carme Lladós Martí. Her father owned a tailor's shop.^[3] She met her future husband, Jordi Pujol, at the Virtèlia School [ca] in Barcelona, which was home to the Brotherhood of the Mare de Déu de Montserrat de Virtèlia, a rare center of both Catholicism and Catalan culture during the Franco dictatorship.^[1][5] Ferrusola, who was 18-years-old at the time, was teaching catechism classes with Pujol's sister, Marta Pujol Soley, in the La Guineueta neighborhood of Barcelona.^[3][5] Pujol's sister introduced them.^[5] They married on 4 June 1956 at a Catholic ceremony at the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, officiated by the abbot, Aureli Maria Escarré.^[5] The couple had seven children: Jordi (born 1958), Marta (1959), Josep (1963), Pere (1965), Oriol (1966), Mireia (1969), and Oleguer (1972).^[3][5]

In 1973, Ferrusola became one of the founding members of the Catalan nationalist party, Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC).^[2] She wielded influence within the CDC, both publicly and behind-the-scenes. Officially, she held the position of the head of the party's sports sector.^[5] Jordi Pujol became President of the Generalitat de Catalunya in 1980, holding that office until 2003. Ferrusola, as Pujol's wife and a high profile political figure within Catalan nationalist movement, sought to transform the unofficial role of First Lady of Catalonia [ca] into a position that closely resembled the first ladies of other, fully sovereign countries.^[5]

Ferrusola co-founded Hidroplant SA, a gardening, landscaping and irrigation company, in 1990 with Núria Claverol, the wife of Carles Sumarroca [ca], a close associate of Generalitat de Catalunya President Jordi Pujol.^[5] Their clients included Fútbol Club Barcelona and the irrigated green façade of the former Banca Catalana [ca] headquarters in Barcelona.^[6] Hidroplant's close ties with the Pujol government came under scrutiny after her company was awarded lucrative gardening and landscaping contracts by the office of the President of the Government of Catalonia, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Port of Barcelona, and four Catalonian government departments, including Department of Economy [ca], and the environmental department during Jordi Pujol's presidency.^[7] In 1994, FC Barcelona also awarded Ferrusola's Hidroplant the contract to maintain the grass turf at the Camp Nou stadium.^[5][4][7] A lawsuit was later filed against Hidroplant in 1995 for failing to maintain the stadium's field after the grass turf had to be replaced due to root damage, which Ferrusola blamed on bad weather.^[4][8]

Marta Ferrusola has been described as conservative, devoutly Catholic, and an ardent Catalan nationalist.^[9] Ferrusola had ties to Opus Dei and travelled to the Vatican to attend the canonization of its founder, Josemaría Escrivá, on 6 October 2002.^[9] She was a frequent critic of a host of groups, including cohabitating unmarried couples, unmarried women, socialist, gays, and people who live in Catalonia who speak Spanish rather than the Catalan language.^[3]