Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí: "Barcelona must have an international agenda to defend its model"

"Barcelona has to be a place where the issues affecting the world can be discussed. It has to be a great agora for debate about the moment we are living." This statement, with its just dose of hopeful drama, was launched by political consultant Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí, the second guest of the Esmorzars de Forquilla series of meetings organized by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, sponsored by Indra and with The New Barcelona Post as a collaborating medium.

After a good lunch ---served promptly at 8:30 in the morning at the Chamber's new facilities---, Gutiérrez-Rubí granted this interview to TheNBP.

--- You say we are living a revolutionary moment globally. Also in cities?

--- The city today is a refuge and an extraordinary democratic value against the offensives of the right and illiberals. A space for coexistence where differences and interests necessarily have to cohabit. And this cohabitation has to be ordered, planned, debated, and contrasted. Today, cities are the most important public space for the defense of democratic values. Faced with this wave of extreme rights, illiberal rights, and libertarian rights, the city is a reference space for coexistence and cohabitation. Because it means living with others, sharing public space with others, whether they are your stairwell neighbors, your street neighbors, or your city neighbors.

--- But not all cities respond the same way.

--- Yes, it is evident. There are different political visions, but all share a central idea: public space in the city must be for everyone. Afterwards, there may be differences and nuances ---and some of them, very important---, but the idea that the city cannot exclude, but must include, seems to me to be a shared value among cities. In fact, democratic values are defended when you are fully aware that your destiny does not depend only on your will, but that your destiny depends on others. And there is nothing better to understand this than coexistence in a stairwell of neighbors. In the end, everything that happens behind closed doors may not be enough, if what happens outside is not shared. Public space is part of what you have to understand as your home. If you understand this, the possibilities for the resolution of conflicts and interests to be through democratic means increase.

"Barcelona is a metaphor for civic freedom and democratic freedom, which is the great combat against freedom without restrictions"

--- Barcelona is a city that attracts international interest. Not only because of the visitors we receive: tourist visits, business visits, or academic activity. Barcelona continues to be a place of reference, a symbolic space. Surely we would not have this symbol without the Olympics, but it is not just that. It is because of its geostrategic position, its history, the fact that it is walkable and that, therefore, public and private space coexist in a permanent intersection. Barcelona is a symbol for many people who, even, have not visited it. Barcelona is a metaphor for civic freedom, for democratic freedom, which is the great combat against unrestricted freedom. This idea of a symbol is very powerful, and I believe that Barcelonans are not sufficiently aware of this enormous capacity that the symbol of Barcelona represents.

--- What are Barcelona's assets?

--- First, to assume the responsibility and opportunity of international leadership. In this imperial world, cities are the counterpoints. Barcelona must assume its international responsibility and must be present and make itself present. Barcelona must have an international agenda to defend its model. Without an international vocation, this idea of a beacon cannot be consolidated, defended, protected, and expanded. Second, global debate topics must be Barcelona topics. They are not just peace, tourist overcrowding, or mobility. Barcelona must be a place where the issues affecting the world can be discussed. It must be a great agora for debate about the moment we are living.

--- And how does this translate?

--- It translates into hosting more international debate projects, more summits, more academic debates, and more global thinkers. Barcelona has to be a comfortable, attractive, and friendly place for ideas. And this involves having a specific strategy on how to permanently attract the thinkers who are interpreting the world today. Barcelona has to incorporate the enormous international and cultural diversity it has into its leadership. The national communities from other countries living in Barcelona do not have enough public presence in the form of leadership. We have to give an opportunity for these citizens, new-generation Barcelonians, to have more prominence.

"Barcelona has to be a comfortable, attractive, and friendly place for ideas"

--- Barcelona has to recover its leading role in the Spanish-speaking world. Not the Spanish world, but the Spanish-speaking world. The presence, for example, of the Catalan-Barcelona footprint and trace in Central America is extraordinary and totally unknown. Barcelona has to look again towards Central America, the Caribbean, and Gran Colombia. Above all, this bridge between two great capitals like Barcelona and Buenos Aires. Countries and cultures where the Catalan presence is traceable and where there is admiration for Barcelona. When we think of Latin America, it seems very far away, but for Latin Americans, we are very close.