The success of the Fira

Journalist Manel Pérez has just published a highly recommended book to learn about the country's economic elites, which are essentially also those of Barcelona. La burguesía catalana. Retrato de la élite que perdió la partida (Península), is the relentless chronicle of the decadence of a social class in free fall.

One, especially if one is guilty of being a cupaire or a Podemos supporter, might think that it's no big drama that some pot-bellied gentlemen, rotten with money, who spent their days drinking whisky and smoking cigars in their private clubs while crushing the working class, lose power and influence ---forgive me the vidaprivadesca caricature---. Nothing to object to, were it not for the fact that, to a large extent, the beneficiaries of this loss of power by the national economic elites have not been the long-suffering popular classes but, rather, multinationals (globalization) and a series of businessmen frequenting the Bernabeu box (centralization of economic and financial power in Madrid).

That, in this clearly adverse political and economic context, Barcelona has been able to retain the Mobile World Congress, at least, until 2030 is, truly, a miracle. The GSMA board of directors has decided to extend the contract with Barcelona for another 6 years, as explained, after intense negotiations with the Generalitat, the City Council, the Ministry of Economy, Turismo de Barcelona, and Fira de Barcelona. Therefore, on this issue and although it is hard to believe, our beloved administrations have rowed together and, what is more exceptional, in the same direction, even though there were ample reasons to turn this negotiation into a new scenario of fratricidal confrontations.

I celebrate that it was not necessary to hold a referendum to decide if we were interested in continuing to be the mobile world capital. That the party coalitions governing on both sides of Plaza Sant Jaume have not made the renewal of the Mobile a new battlefield to stage divergences or a competition to claim the medal. That Mayor Ada Colau applauds as a Barcelona success a project that does not precisely align with her political ideology. Or, of course, that John Hoffman is much more elegant than the promoters of Primavera Sound and does not threaten, at least in public, to take the whole setup to Madrid.

Let's be serious, it's not like we've won the lottery or that the phone gentlemen are doing us a favor. For many and various reasons, the GSMA would hardly find a better city than Barcelona in which to hold its annual congress. One of these weighty arguments is, without a doubt, Fira de Barcelona, ​​a leading organization at the state level and one of the most important in Europe. It is estimated that its annual contribution to the city's economy and its surroundings is around 4.7 billion euros and has an impact of more than 35,000 jobs. Fira is indisputably one of the great engines of the Barcelona economy and of the country. It is with Mobile, but also with Alimentaria or Automobile, to name just some of the shows with the greatest economic impact.

The renewal of Mobile should help Pau Relat, effective president of Fira since 2018 and a true rara avis in these times of grand proclamations and sterile gestures, to successfully carry out the necessary modernization of the Montjuïc exhibition center and the expansion of Gran Via. Hopefully, in this, he will also count on the full complicity of the institutions or, at least, that they do not put spokes in his wheels.