JOSEP CUNÍ
22 APR 2021 – 20:19 CEST
Chef Jordi Cruz on Josep Cuní’s program on Ràdio Barcelona.
It is not necessary to be very sharp or very sensitive to detect a certain deterioration of democratic culture. This has been amply demonstrated in recent years by a number of public and private attitudes, because democracy is not only a form of government, but also and especially a personal and collective attitude that is channeled through participation in response to the will and need of citizens. And although the pandemic has become the test of the white glove inspection justified by public health reasons, some decisions taken by our representatives and endorsed by justice in the form of limitations, confinements, prohibitions and impositions mostly uncritically obeyed, have made it clear.
But it didn’t all start with the coronavirus. Without a background, one could not understand the denunciations from people on balconies, the reprimanding reports and the punitive warnings of the last year. Previously, this position could already be seen in the progressive low tolerance of opposing views, in the immediate loss of respect for those who do not share the same ideas or demanding dialogue and accusing them of not providing it to those who are required to do so with one’s own postulates. Definitely, the verb demand has become a popular synonym for others that are less compelling but equally valid: ask, raise, request or claim, for example. And that some appear in the dictionary as synonyms does not deny its higher level condition in demand. We heard it this week from students locked up at the UB. Despite having their reasons to defend and showing their respectable discomfort, they did not urge the Rector to subscribe to them, but “required” him to do so as a condition for their departure. An all or nothing. Democratic, of course.
Without a background, one could not understand the denunciations from people on the balconies, the reprimanding reports
For their part, some political forces in Parliament that signed a health cordon to isolate Vox have conspired to deny that ultra-right party the senator deserved to them for being the fourth electoral force; they would have got it if at the time of taking the decision the mechanism used for 40 years would have been applied. The case law shows that it is not easy to get it right with the procedure to stop those considered as a danger to democracy. A debate as open as it is historical and unequal. But it is also difficult for those who have administered it long before the social irruption of the intolerant to question and correct those own decisions that helped create a complaining environment skillfully exploited by extreme populists. In turn, it is curious that from the very election night onwards those who facilitated Vox’s participation in public media debates got indignant about it, breaking another unwritten tradition: that only those who already had representation had a right to a lectern in public stations electoral debates. It happened, however, that since Junts per Catalunya had lost its legal right by legal decision as a result of the struggle with the PDeCAT, one of the formations with a higher number of deputies and better expectations could not be there. And so it was that convenience did the rest by encouraging the participation of those who are now a burden. Something similar to what Spanish socialism did to try to annoy the PP or what is happening in the Madrid campaign in front of offensive posters. Beyond lamenting and denouncing it, it is only countered with data by the media and not by rivals alarmed by something more than a provocation. And, of course, in the face of his ability to stir his stomach with falsehoods rather than his brain with reasons, the citizen angry with his party or with all of them throws himself to the vote of discomfort and challenges.
Jordi Cruz, a famous chef and television presenter, lamented on Tuesday at ‘SER Catalunya’ the harsh restrictions imposed on the catering sector, which have led its venues being closed since March last year. And in a provocative and playful way he wondered what would be happening to him because he had considered that, if he lived in Madrid, he would be casting his vote for Isabel Díaz Ayuso. And Carles Abellán joined despite confessing to be from the left. And it was up to them to receive from a legion of inattentive critics, armored behind the nets, who seem to have come to encourage hatred and increase tension rather than to contribute to solidarity, promote equality and socialize knowledge. And if not, let’s ask Javier Cercas and the tweet that decontextualized and reduced a half-hour intervention he did some time ago 30 seconds after an interview on TV3. Or Jordi Évole, who is asked not to interview a vaccine denier, or his colleagues, whose questions are criticized when it is the answers which are usually the wrong. No wonder Ada Colau has left Twitter. Of course, if all these people went through the history of their own accounts in Twitter, they would not endure their own past either. Like almost no one.
It is not easy to get it right with the procedure to curb those considered a danger to democracy.
https://cat.elpais.com/cat/2021/04/22/opinion/1619081545_010271.html
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