Madrid DF is not just the title of a book: it is a provocation, an urban thesis, and a mirror placed in front of Barcelona. Fernando Caballero, its author, has managed to open a debate about the role of Madrid and, incidentally, reactivate the eternal comparisons with Barcelona.
Caballero explains why he believes that the only great narrative about Madrid was written by Pasqual Maragall from Barcelona, and why it was time to answer it.
--- Why do you think your book has caused so much controversy, especially in Barcelona?
--- Because of the cover and the subtitle, without a doubt. On the band it says: "Why should Madrid consolidate itself as the great city of Southern Europe?", and on the back cover I talk about exceeding 10 million inhabitants and becoming a powerful metropolis. Together with the publisher, we were a bit provocative, and that has had two effects: a lot of impact and, at the same time, generating rejection for staying on the headline without going into the substance.
--- What does Madrid DF really mean?
--- It is an ambiguous label. For some, it is the center that absorbs everything; for others, a symbol of political and economic centralism. But that ambivalence is what I wanted to explore. I don't argue that Madrid is a vacuum cleaner for resources. What I propose is to think of a connected, open city with the capacity to grow.
--- In the book you talk about Madrid having recovered its essence. What do you mean?
--- Madrid was, for centuries, a city with a global vocation: it administered an empire. It did not generate: it administered. But that faded. With globalization, the Internet, and infrastructures, that essence has returned. Now it has room to grow, infrastructures that connect it, and an open metropolitan dynamic, unlike Barcelona, which is an urbanistically finished city.
"Madrid needs Barcelona to function and vice versa"--- In the book you mention Barcelona a lot, you quote Maragall, Tremosa, Bel... Why that constant mirror?
--- Because the only great narrative about Madrid had been written by Maragall from Barcelona. His article Madrid se va (Madrid is leaving) was corrosive and intelligent. But it was a cynical, victimizing narrative, which served to build a discourse in Catalonia. My intention was to respond to that narrative and put it in context.
--- Don't you think that now Madrid is creating this victimizing narrative that you criticize?
--- It might seem so, but that is not my intention. In the book, I explain how Madrid has leveraged its connectivity ---infrastructure, AVE, airport--- to grow. What I criticize is that many of the accusations against Madrid come late: for example, the AVE was truly radial from 2004, and until then Barcelona had an advantage. And even today, El Prat is still a better airport than Barajas in many aspects.
--- Should Madrid and Barcelona compete or collaborate?
--- Both. They are systems that complement each other very well: they have redundancies, distinct styles, and that is positive. A national metropolitan system with two large poles in synergy can be very powerful. As I said: if Taylor Swift can give a concert on Friday in Madrid and on Saturday in Barcelona, we all win.
--- And what narrative can Barcelona build today to be relevant beyond its immediate surroundings?
--- That is its great challenge. Barcelona must ask itself what it has to offer Zaragoza, Valencia, Palma. Because for a long time, the Barcelona system was closed, self-centered, almost self-referential. If it doesn't provide value beyond, it only serves itself. And that has run its course. Its industrial model, closed and protected, died with globalization. Now it needs to redefine itself.
"Beyond symbolic rivalry, the real challenge is what each city can contribute to its environment"--- Has Barcelona been a closed system? From modernism to the Olympic Games, they indicate just the opposite, don't they?
--- It has had open elites, yes. Big events, international companies, modernism. That's true. But its socioeconomic system has often operated in terms of asymmetry: mine, everything; yours, whatever it can be. And that, in times of global openness, no longer works.
--- So, how would you summarize the relationship between Madrid and Barcelona today?
--- Like that of Real Madrid and Barça: they compete, yes, but they need each other. Madrid needs Barcelona to function and vice versa. But beyond this symbolic rivalry, the real challenge is what each city can contribute to its surroundings. Madrid must be interesting for the rest of the country. And Barcelona, too.
"The important thing is to grow by being useful to others"--- You say that Madrid should not repeat Barcelona's mistakes. What do you mean?
--- Barcelona acted for a century and a half as an extractive metropolis for the rest of the State. That worked as long as the market was captive. But that system no longer exists. And it is not Madrid that should now aspire to become that vacuum cleaner for the country. We must grow with a different, open, collaborative logic.
--- I would say that it has been practicing it for a long time, right?
--- Madrid is beginning to build a complex urban system: creative class, civil society, an economic ecosystem independent of political power. It seems logical, but it did not exist. But if it is not watched, it can end up being a closed system. The important thing is to grow by being useful to others.