Saint George and what we are: universals

The political chronicle continues to be a judicial chronicle, with the trials continuing against Jorge Fernández Díaz and the patriotic police leadership, against Ábalos and Koldo, and against the Pujol family.

Yesterday, Begoña Gómez was added to the group, the wife of President Sánchez, indicted by the investigating judge, who wants to retire with the job done and, if possible, with a suggested conviction.

Meanwhile, the Sánchez-Gómez couple is in China, where the Spanish president continues to grow his current, and especially future, role as a progressive world leader, an antagonist of far-right populisms and various MAGAs.

Without going any further, this morning Sánchez was received by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who said that both China and Spain "are on the right side of history" and that the two countries agree on the defense of international law, and urged Sánchez to join efforts against the "law of the jungle." Pay attention to Sánchez's international career, who knows that his Spanish one could end next year.

Meanwhile, they surely remember that yesterday we showed you the montage of Trump as if he were God. He had to withdraw it (not without first saying that he was acting as a Red Cross doctor, not God). And the one who reacted against Trump was the Pope.

When asked about the matter yesterday on board the plane taking him to Algeria, Leo XIV said he is not afraid of Trump's government, which is a very New Testament expression: “Fear not.”

And when with these ingredients the dish of the day was already made, Eduardo Mendoza appears and says:

Eduardo Mendoza: “Away with Saint George. It is Book Day. It had always been called Book Day, and one day Saint George got into it. He has nothing to do with it. Saint George was an animal abuser, who surely couldn't read. Saint George has nothing to do with books.”

Since Mendoza has made me enjoy his books and has always been very pleasant to deal with, when I heard it I told myself that he must be an impersonator, or that it must be a joke (a very ill-advised one, but a joke); but no, it is what it is.

I believe Mendoza has made a mistake, in tone and content. Sant Jordi is what makes the book festival in Catalonia the admiration, if not the envy, of the book world. We will have to repeat an obvious fact: the sum of rose and book, of literature and love, is of such great symbolic strength that it has made this celebration universal, decipherable by everyone, wherever they come from and whatever they speak. Sant Jordi is not an intruder; it is precisely the element that adds sentiment and popular color to what would otherwise be a book fair. Once again, what makes us universal is Catalan identity. It is incomprehensible that an author like Mendoza speaks against it.

Good morning.