Are Isona Passola and Jordi Casassas fighting over the future of Ateneu Barcelonès?

Barcelona"There has to be a civilized confrontation, which doesn't mean a war," said one. "I'm delighted that there could be an alternative candidacy to ours," said the other. The first is Jordi Casassas (Barcelona, ​​1948), who was president of the Ateneu Barcelonès from 2014 to 2021. The second is Isona Passola (Barcelona, ​​1953), the current president of the institution on Canuda Street. Both are running in this Thursday's elections (from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.), in which the members will decide what they want the Ateneu to be of the future, or at least for the next four years.

Moderated by the director of the ARA, Esther Vera, and in a packed Oriol Bohigas room, Passola and Casassas began swimming in cordiality. Afterward, for half an hour, they clashed head-on over the management of the bar-restaurant, which is no longer exclusive to Ateneo members. "There are days when I've found myself without a table for lunch," Casasses lamented. "A bar should be profitable, and serving twenty meals a day isn't," Passola reported. Finally, they ended up throwing reproaches at each other. One accusing the other of being despotic, and the other recalling the machismo she's had to accept at the Ateneo: "I've encountered people who have said horrible things to me, like: 'Girl, since you've been here the toilets are dirty.'" She suggesting that "professors have a hard time assimilating the dynamics of transformation in private enterprise." He taking refuge in irony as "one of those professors who dies in office."

All of this in a debate that presented two almost antagonistic models. Passola, who is its president, waves the flag of renewal and change with the candidacy The Ateneo beatsCasassas, who is presenting himself as an alternative to the leadership of First, the Athenaeum, wields the motto "heredity obliges." It's as if they've reversed roles.

"The work done is the main guarantee, a team effort that has given life to the Ateneo," Passola affirmed. "We reject exaggerated personalisms and we have an obligation to history," Casassas said. The president, "expansive," as Vera defined her, highlighted work accomplished, such as reducing the historical deficit, carrying out the renovation works (proposed during Casassas's previous term), increasing activity, and incorporating young members into "the power structures," young people who "are very good and have created three." The candidate emphasized that "we must organize the cultural offering and promote our own cultural production and teaching." Casassas also said that "a change of direction cannot be made by a board" without consulting the members, because things "cannot be imposed with enlightened despotism, no matter how enlightened it may be." And he added that "by changing the building excessively, the heartbeat of society will be lost" and that the Ateneu runs the risk "of becoming a cultural center for the Ciutat Vella district," a statement that Passola interpreted as pejorative, surely because Casassas's purpose was precisely that. Passola replied: "I get the impression that he hasn't followed the Ateneu's cultural program."

In any case, it has become clear that the Ateneu needs to recover its capacity to "produce ideas and project them to society," as Casassas said; and it also needs to address "national emergencies: migration and language," as Passola added.