Barcelona and Madrid, a new episode in a historic rivalry

The new habits complicate the journalistic art of people bother. Because if they used to read newspaper, they now wear headphones in front of a screen and the interruption is somewhat more sudden, more ungrateful. A young woman raises her head and takes in some questions. Take seat in car four of a Avlo going from Barcelona to Madrid. It’s Friday, it’s six in the evening and his sister is sitting next to him. “We are going to spend the weekend to see museums and to have fun“As if they’re going to give them some air. They’re traveling in the middle of a new chapter of the eternal conflict between the two cities, if that competition ever made sense. The entrepreneurs They were in Catalonia and the money He lived in the capital of the state. Now the ‘karma’ of a decadent Barcelona and a brilliant Madrid, of a Barcelona that the ‘Nothing’ by Carmen Laforet and a Madrid that the ship of ‘holidays by the sea‘. And even though the thing is full of nuances, topics, unspoken realities, exaggerations and campaigns, it seems to happen like with covid: the image, sensations, optimism and also the pessimism, The brand; everything is contagious. For better and for worse. Then there is the data, the numbers. But this, as rational as it may seem, does not generate illusion, controversy or my opinion.

‘When you give up Madrid gives you very strong‘, reads a large advertisement placed at Atocha station. The first equation, that of this terminal (or if you prefer, that of Loss, in Zaragoza) with that of Saints, it would already be blooming. We save it. San miguel, a wonderful metal structure market From the beginning of the 20th century, which has now been transformed into a gastronomic market (which has always been avoided in La Boqueria), its corridors have been filled to the brim with dinners. Toue oral smiles and toasts, design, beautiful people. Tourists and locals from Madrid, just outside the office, come together tables with sausages, empanadas, sushi, beer and oysters. English, Italian, French spoken. And different Castilians. In a VIPS from the roundabout of Quevedo, there is a poster that summarizes the image that the city radiates: “Very open“For the neophyte, everything is wonderful.

The land of peace combine grocery stores with all kinds of tastings. atmosphere. And great ropes to get a table or a centimeter bar in the famous Dani Huis, where, they say, one eats one of the best tortilla chips of the planet. A couple from Sant Cugat are waiting their turn. “Friends who came in Christmas and for the Purisima They told us to come, it Madrid is spectacular. Yesterday we made museums, today it’s time to eat. The truth is that there is a different atmosphere here. “Back on the train, four other people were consulted, two traveling to Madrid on a recurring basis for work and one road marriage a few days without the children, coincides with the idea that the plateau is one step ahead. But is it fair to make an X-ray of a city with a visit of only 24 hours? Is it enough to see the Retreat as if it were a constant big party come to any conclusion? Of course not. Many other variables play out here, although there is a remnant that seems to be confirmed: Barcelona is not as lovely as before, while Madrid is being enjoyed more than ever. They could transfer the latter to football, which will have something to do with it all.

The reasons can be found in the immediacy. In the pandemic, in the city ​​council policy. In the ‘processes’, if you prefer. But the causes are also much deeper and long-lasting, the result of a certain exhaustion not followed by a renaissance that Madrid apparently under the umbrella of ciudad ‘business friendly‘and friend of international tourism in times of covid. As I explained to them THE NEWSPAPER days ago, just analyze the municipal barometer to realize that the disillusionment has been cooking for a long time, with evaluations of leaders that they were lower year after year and with confidence in the government in turn in free fall. With civil concerns, such as insecurity or lack of neatness in the streets, which have always been there and which also serve as a hinge for moral drag, without a definitive answer that enlightens them.

It is as if the city has stretched to exhaustion the Olympic awake, with the tourism that came later, and without a road map would have run out. Or as they say, without a city ​​model falling in love. It may help that the four former mayors of Barcelona Narcís Serra, Joan Clos, Jordi Hereu and Xavier Trias agreed to confirm in a law in 2016 in the Palay Macaya: the pact is the only way out, and the public-private partnership, too. where is civil society, formerly known as the bourgeoisie, is another issue to consider in the contemporary development of the Catalan capital. In contrast, companies like Microsoft The Google if they stuck their heads out with their own projects in the city of Gaudí en Cerda.

The eternal wait for infrastructure

But there are more things that the waterline of the ‘barcelonidad‘, as the shot house prices and the misfortune of not being able to live in your own neighborhood; the dripping disappearance of emblematic or traditional shops; the frustration generated by the perpetual wait for infrastructure such as the metro lyn 9, the station of the Sagrera or improvements in Near, or the aesthetic debate that arose as a result of tactical town planning and bar terraces, which did little to nurture local pride despite the good intentions to help recovery and give more space to pedestrians. The image, and Madrid does know how to take advantage of it, is also important. Do not forget outsiders. While the Catalan capital in 2019 88% of international overnight stays in hotels and 12% of the citizens, the distribution in the state capital was 63% of foreign and 37% of the population in Spain. For those who like it blame the ‘process’, in 2011, when everything started to change, Barcelona had 18.7% of strange nights, and in 2009 they were 25%. It can also be deduced, apart from politics, that the city has chosen to work more and better World Market, since it broke its record for overnight stays by nearly 20 million in 2019.

Then there is the socio-economic data. And apart from what each local government sweeps home, such as the fact that Barcelona takes up 72% of the investment volume in offices throughout Spain, impartial reports can be used, such as the one provided by the Spanish network for sustainable development, based at the Autonomous University of Madrid, which every two years the degree of compliance with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that United Nations It is set for 2030. In its study conducted in 2020, this organization analyzed life in 100 cities, including Madrid and Barcelona. Here’s the thing. Poverty indicators are better in the Catalan capital, with a lower rate of child population without resources and greater value in investment to combat inequality. Barcelona also wins educational quality, with triple the value at the point referring to public spending.

bad in contamination

There is slightly less suicides in Madrid, syne premature death it is also slightly lower and strikes in terms of clean water (that blessed canal of Isabel II) and sanitation. Also the city led by Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida spend more per capita Research, development and innovation. As if pollution they are both very bad (now better, thanks to the pandemic) and they also share, at the bottom of the table, a very weak index of access to housing. In the underwater life there is no surprise there, Barcelona strikes through. In the same way that Madrid put its hand over the face of the Catalan capital at the rate of crime (almost 40% less) and in the murders and murders (half). In summary, the thing is fairly widespread, and in comparison, there are other Spanish cities that give a thousand turns to both.

Sergio, from Barcelona, ​​is a senior executive of a large company in Madrid. “He has been away from Catalonia for more than 20 years (he has also lived in Mexico, the United States, England and Brazil), but he is clear that it is there, at home, where he wants to retire, in his city.”infinitely more beautiful but much less cared forIn recent years he has noticed a growing self-absorption of Barcelona, ​​adangerous inbreeding Before a more cosmopolitan Madrid business and more projected abroad “. Regardless of the moment, Sergio shares, there are features that are unique and original to each city:” Madrid is enjoy more, happier, but with more superficial relationships. “On the pandemic, he acknowledges that the idea has taken hold in the state capital that covid does not matter a little.” People, either on the left or on the right, have themselves convince that Dat live better without worrying“.

Regret the missed opportunities in Barcelona because he is convinced that it is “a city that has everything to be a magnet in times of telecom, with natural beauty, infrastructure, climate, cultural offerings. “Instead, he laments,” the same thing prevails before it is made easier for outsiders to come, and this is happening at a time when Madrid is more open than ever. is “. shame to see one Barcelona comes to less, but it is the product of what the people of Barcelona have wanted for the past decade, ”sums up Sergio, convinced that the debate is no longer two-way, because Madrid hardly talks about Barcelona.

Related news

Emilio, of Asturian descent, studied for a master’s degree in Barcelona at the turn of the century and then founded a company based in the Catalan capital for almost 20 years. In 2018 he could not stand it any longer and took the firm and the workers to Madrid and left a small delegation here. He does point to politics as the culprit of “economic isolation“Money travels recklessly, and a lot of capital that was meant for Barcelona moved to Madrid. There is much hostility, and I am referring not only to the independence movement, but also to political decisions that it in a squat and small town“The municipal government is not a friend of capitalism, we have not discovered anything new there. Emilio still thinks that Barcelona” a transatlantic can do what he wants and with some privileged conditions, but only when he really opened up to the outside, did he do well. ” “But he can not play much longer because the enthusiasm of the people is not at the expense of everything,” he concludes.

It is clear that mood is moving at different speeds in Madrid and Barcelona. Back home, also in an Avlo, a young man from Horta-Guinardó reads a book on business entrepreneurship and returns home after a few days looking for funding for a plan he’s in have hands, sustain the city is “numb and angry“And it’s not just the Covid who cracked us all up, it’s something else I do not know how to explain to you.” infestation of sensations, the other pandemic. or as I said Anna Gener in a article published in this newspaper in September 2020: “In my old life there was less worry, less fear and much more beauty.”