On the Mercè’s opening speakers: a city and a country for everyone

The La Mercè[1] festivities have started with a harmless duel of opening speeches. The official one, by writer Javier Pérez Andújar, found its match in actor Toni Albà’s street performance , motivated by independence supporters who had felt offended by Pérez Andújar’s name-calling a while ago. While some at first seemed to want to turn it into a confrontation, eventually it became a demonstration of the plurality of Barcelona and Catalonia.

Pérez Andújar, staying true to his vision of the city, praised the working class spirit and popular culture of the anonymous people who have suffered and are suffering the most from the financial crash. Albà, meanwhile, dressed as King Phillip V[2] and using his trademark sarcastic tone, threw friendly, funny criticism at the city’s government and asked the official opening speaker, whose unquestionable talent he acknowledged, to respect those who support the independence of Catalonia at the same time as proclaiming his respect “for the Spanish people, their culture and their language”. Both gathered people in the streets in a festive, civic atmosphere, as is right and proper for these days, in this city and this country, where peaceful coexistence and tolerance are the norm.

Indeed, this is the same spirit of coexistence that has marked the political change of recent years in Catalonia. The key to the success of the pro-independence movement lies in the construction of an inclusive discourse, removed from the identity-based narrative that Catalan nationalism had been identified with for decades. Thanks to this, many different wills have been successfully married. It’s been said time and again, in Spanish and Catalan, peacefully and festively, that the new country has to be for all, wherever they came from, however they think; it has to be a more democratically mature country, tolerant of everything, open to different cultural influences, more just and ambitious. A country not constructed against Spain or any minority. The new country, therefore, has to be that of Pérez Andújar and that of Albà, that of all the people who live and work there, even those radically opposed to independence. Otherwise, there would be no point. And, without a doubt, only in this way, with generosity and an open mind, will it be possible. Yes: yesterday’s opening speakers represent two different Barcelonas, both perfectly real, and perfectly capable of living side by side and enriching each other.

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[1] N.T. La Mercè, named for the “Virgin of Mercy”, is Barcelona’s annual festa major or most important festival and is always held early in September. A public address by a guest speaker marks the start of the festivities.

[2] N.T. Phillip V was King of Spain from 1700 to 1724. The controversy surrounding his accession to the throne caused the War of the Spanish Succession. One of the consequences of his victory was the centralisation of the Spanish state and the end of independent Catalan legislation and political institutions. He is very much despised by independence supporters in Catalonia.