In recent days in Barcelona, ??only the city has been talked about, which is the favorite theme of the people of Barcelona. The reason is that the Financial Times has published an article entitled “How Barcelona lost its way”. Curiously, the subtitle seems contradictory: “Politics has fostered deep malaise in the city, which is one of the most visited in Europe.” Xavier Trias insists on his pages on this concept. In his opinion, there are two Barcelonas: one is the one visited by tourists who are delighted and leave, and the other is the city of the residents, which is a disaster. The conclusion of the journalistic work is that there was a Barcelona that generated illusion, but that no longer does so.
The strongest response to the article has come from another British-born citizen: John Carlin. Toni Clapés interviewed him on RAC1 and discredited the speech: “I am a superfan of Barcelona, ??its most determined propagandist. I have lived in a dozen cities in my life and have been to more than sixty countries. And I can affirm that in few places is life as good as in this capital of the Mediterranean, a sea that is the cradle of our civilization. It’s okay to question it. Irritates me. I read that it is dirty, that it is insecure. Compared to what? Go to New York, London or Paris and they will explain it to me.”
Like all large cities, Barcelona has felt the crisis of 2008 and the covid of 2020. And in between there was the independence movement that caused many companies -8,200, according to the Financial Times- to move their headquarters outside of Catalonia. And yet it has resisted. What privileges does Barcelona have? The climate, the sea, the urban planning, the architecture, the gastronomy, the cocktail bars and even its modest size that makes it close to people. It is a city made on a human scale, in the antipodes of the Madrid model.
The city could be better off, have less ideological burden, not lead the tax burden and have a more defined project for the future. But to correct that are the elections. To speak ill of Barcelona is a mistake, but above all nonsense.
