Many will consider this title offensive, or resentful, or full of ideological baggage. This is what happens when one is accustomed to having a "great capital" that acts as the decision-making center for everything important that happens in the State, and which therefore sets the cardinal points: according to this psychological premise, Barcelona is in the northeast. And on the periphery. But it turns out that coordinates do not exist on their own, but depend on perspective. There is no north, nor east. There is the north of where you are, or the east of where that other one is. Therefore, Barcelona has its own peripheries: in terms of proximity, its most immediate periphery is Catalonia. And in terms of large cities, Barcelona's periphery is Valencia, Toulouse, Montpellier, Zaragoza, Valencia, and Palma. It is not a political consideration, but a geographical one. And if it is about counting great capitals, Barcelona's periphery is found in Madrid as much as in Paris as in Rome. But these are only state capitals: And a state capital does not determine peripheries, but only (now yes) its administrative scope of influence.
In a context of the European Union or even of economic and social globalization, administrative or sovereignty scopes do not determine (or should not determine from the outset) economic and social coordinates or peripheries: depending on where the focus is placed, Madrid or Paris can be taken as an ally or as a reference. Or Rome, or Valencia, or Malaga. Barcelona is free to determine its peripheries, without waiting for the capital of the State to tell it that it is only a peripheral city.
Apparently, the current "co-capitality" bets express a void of content that only shows this administrative submission: Barcelona has not been seen to make any qualitative leap, in economic or cultural or social terms, by proclaiming itself as a "co-capital" of Spain. The funding of the Teatro Real or the Prado continues to be astronomically higher than that of the Liceu or the MNAC, mainly due to the State's lower investment interest: this is not co-capitality, this is peripheral treatment. And perhaps what it would invite is, since this seems to be a chronic and unreformable aspect, to start considering Madrid as much a periphery of Barcelona as any other city at the same distance. With the only link, yes, that from time to time the State collaborates in some investment for the simple fact that Barcelona is within that State, and not because it is a "co-capital" of anything. Unlike what the city council proposes today (and has for too many years), it would be a matter of thanking these investments required by law and focusing interests (economic, social, cultural) much further than Madrid: treating Madrid, in effect, as a periphery. With power, especially administrative power, but a periphery.
The other reason is not so philosophical, but more practical: the model. We can take the Las Vegas model as a reference, where anything goes, everything is possible, and "freedom" prevails over "communism." This model would indeed envy a Formula 1 exhibition in the middle of La Castellana or an America's Cup on a Madrid beach. But this is a model of long waiting lists in hospitals, of little originality and creativity, and of a complete lack of aesthetic and ethical sensitivity. They say that in Barcelona we have too many doubts about El Prat's third runway, and it is surely true, but considering things should not lead to the current paralysis but to finding an alternative model (and it seems incredible, yes, that we still haven't agreed on one). They say that Barcelona has too many doubts about Hard Rock, but it's not about saying "no" to everything but about saying "are you sure?" to everything. And then, of course, deciding. It's about having our own way of doing things, of knowing how to compensate globalization with localization, of welcoming foreign investors and respecting neighborhood life, of copying models to export even more of our own.
I am sure that the current feeling of stagnation in the city is not due to things not happening, many things do happen, but rather because the things that do happen are presented to us as too artificial, distant, or imitative. When Barcelona understands that it is not a periphery or a branch of anyone, but rather that it has its own peripheries to which it can make its own proposal, then it will once again seem like Barcelona and will stop apologizing for existing.