Barcelona The children are so nervous and solemn with the power radiating from the Palau de la Generalitat that I think hopefully no one will ever explain anything about the Process to them. It is the first day that the program I want to be president! open the doors to journalists. This year, Catalan schools can enroll 5th and 6th grade students in this program which consists of simulating parliamentary activity in class and culminates with a visit to the epicenter of national sovereignty, including a reception by the president. It’s a tradition that dates back to the time of José Montilla, and the fact that Pere Aragonès is taking it up would suggest that the less expansive politicians are aware that they need to do something extra. The Government’s idea is to spread the most endearing and human side of the president, while journalists pray for an innocent creature to ask a compromising question. As we have seen with the Argentine elections, if the state does not sow sympathetic associations among future voters, then they grow up and vote what they vote.
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The nice association that has to leave the day is a condensed simulacrum of inauguration of a president and his advisers, government deliberation and press conference. Finally, they will visit the noble plant and meet Aragonès, which makes them genuinely excited. The session becomes a reminder that democracy without education is a problematic binomial: children are of Hobbesian punitiveness (they vote to install security cameras to prevent the bullying instead of allocating more resources or doing preventive courses), very little radical feminists (they vote to change the clothes and customs of some sports instead of promoting better-paid jobs for women) and the star health measure is to increase the hours of physical education (at the expense of the poor reading class). I die of laughter when the girl in charge of acting as spokesperson has to answer the questions of her colleagues who have been converted into journalists and discovers that the formula “We’re still studying” is unbeatable. A moment of hope when a boy defiantly asks about changing sports uniforms, as if it were a joke, and the spokeswoman replies that “in sports such as volleyball, girls have to wear clothes that are very similar to panties and not all of them feel comfortable with these things”. president
Aragonés receives them in the Patio dels Tarongers and makes them sit in the Sala Tarradellas. He is good with the children and they are well behaved: there will be no tension or any problematic anecdotes. The paternal vibes that the president emits oscillate on the spectrum of reasonable distance: neither wanting to scare, nor wanting to play the part. The creatures maintain respect and are more interested in statues and gargoyles than in the powers of the Ministry of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda. The moment of maximum complicity is when Aragonès explains that councilors ask for many things, but the one for Economy sets limits. Asked about the meaning of the great frieze by Antoni Tàpies, the president replied that it “symbolises things from Catalonia”, which I think is a good summary of the day.
2023-11-20 19:05:38
#Pere #Aragonès #future #presidents #Catalonia
