In a country that is both Catholic and priest-eater like ours, the relationship between religion and politics has historically been sinuous and critical. Polarization became very extreme during the Civil War, the echo of which continues to resonate. Vox-PP remind us of it every day. At the same time, there are surprising phenomena: we have, for example, a socialist president, Salvador Illa, who does not hide his Christian humanism in the midst of a society that is going in another direction, increasingly secularized and orphaned of meaning. And at the same time, we have an independentist far-right that banally warns about the dangers facing Christian civilization, whose values it does not practice.

Donald Trump is a millionaire, a real estate magnate, has direct interests in technology companies and... is Donald Trump. The President of the United States embodies in himself all the characteristics of the "enemy" that this weekend has been pointed out by the left gathered in Barcelona, with Pedro Sánchez as host, who has established himself as the reference of the international progressive movement. "When we socialists govern, states do not bow to elites, we put them in their place," he exclaimed to close the weekend summits before the 6,500 people who filled pavilion 8 of Fira de Barcelona. The commitment of the Spanish leader, but also of the heads of state and government who have met, is to "resist" the push of the far-right, but also to "build" together a new multilateral world. "We will twist the arm of those who believe themselves untouchable. Of the millionaires who exploit people and play with greed; of the speculators who play with people's savings and homes, and of the technologists who line their pockets at the expense of the health of democracies and the mental health of our youth," Sánchez ratified, intoning from the stage the "No to war" that the entire auditorium followed.

Are we becoming more servile to power every day? The signs point to yes. Apathy is gaining ground, especially among the youngest. We are witnessing atrocious massacres like the one in Gaza, wars of caprice like the one in Iran, imperialist aggressions like Russia's against Ukraine. The government of the world's leading power, the United States, is in the hands of delirious madmen. Yet we protest less than twenty years ago. And much less than fifty years ago.

Pedro Sánchez has inaugurated with Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, the weekend with which the Spanish government seeks to establish Barcelona as one of the reference cities against trumpism. The two leaders met this morning at the Palau de Pedralbes, where they held a meeting, and thus inaugurate two days in which up to three summits of international progressivism coincide in the Catalan capital, with the Spanish president acting as host.

“There are days that are born without knowing they can end up being remembered. Apparently ordinary days, caught between routine and uncertainty, that unfold with the same cadence as always: a kiss before leaving home, a shared concern, a promise cast into the future before going to sleep. And yet, some of these days hide a disturbing question: will this be one of those days that history will point to?”

The invisible hand, according to Adam Smith: “Each person uses their capital to satisfy their immediate needs, but an invisible hand leads them to promote an objective that is not in their intentions, promoting efficient markets in a complex aggregate that no one can fully understand [...]”. The supremacy of the market. Hayek described this invisible hand as an imperceptible and unfathomable, but solid and determining, pattern. Market dynamics make it possible for people to act on their own, in ignorance of the whole, without anyone having to tell them what to do.Conventional capitalism, until the 21st century, was sustained by a reciprocal relationship between business and society, between economy and democracy. When in 1965 General Motors had a value of approximately 25,000 million dollars (about 225,000 million dollars today), it employed 735,000 workers; today, Alphabet (Google's parent company) has a value of approximately 2 trillion dollars and about 190,000 workers, and Meta (Facebook's parent company), more than 1 trillion dollars in valuation and 79,000 employees. Reciprocity has been lost, even more so due to the capacity companies have to condition demand: they do not need the market, they create it. The alignment between business, economic, political, and social interests has weakened. Some maintain, with good reason, that past reciprocities were at the origin of the amicable relationship between market and democracy. They needed each other. That balance has been lost. The market dominates democracy. Hence the growing relevance of stark economic profit. The right does not hide its interests at all...

The Sophists have a bad reputation. Those itinerant teachers were skeptics and relativists, they charged for their lessons and sought to persuade, through one argument or the other, instead of seeking absolute truth, in which they did not believe. Plato and Aristotle despised them.

The debate about what to understand by "democracy" is not new. No one questions that the Greeks invented the word. of mokratywhich means that political decisions are made by the people. However, long before the Greeks, other societies had participatory or assembly-based governments that represent forms of collective governance. Moreover, democracy has not followed a linear trajectory from Greece to the present day, but has been reinvented in different times and places. A new study, published in Sciende AdvanceBased on archaeological and textual data from 40 historical cases in 31 societies worldwide, the study argues that assemblies and councils existed in Europe, the Americas, and Asia to make community decisions, often related to resource management, agriculture, and collective defense. These institutions were not democracies in the modern sense, but they did allow for participation and a degree of collective deliberation.

We live in turbulent times, if you'll pardon the obvious. A new empire, China, threatens the hegemony of another, the United States. New technologies like artificial intelligence propel us into the unknown. Mass migrations alter societies' self-perception. The basest popular passions (racism, xenophobia, classism) are unleashed, the middle class is sinking, and truth and lies are becoming blurred. And not even the most robust democratic mechanisms seem capable of surviving the chaos.

"The voice of democracy will not be silenced by the techno-oligarchs "of the algorithm," says Pedro Sánchez in a new and defiant display. Two weeks ago, it was immigration, the far right's preferred bogeyman for mobilizing the public. The president announced the regularization of all those who have been here for at least five months. Recognition of the rights and dignity of Abascal and Vox, and the indignation of the PP, with their usual pathetic argument: they come to take jobs from citizens and dilute the essential values ​​of the nation. Steps in the challenge. By announcing the removal of minors under 16 from social media, he has provoked a furious reaction from Elon Musk and company, canonical representatives of the contempt for the population by those who consider them fodder for exploitation. It seems evident that the unrestrained use and exploitation of the digital space that certain companies intend to control, from the logic of a society where anything goes as long as it benefits them, given the scale it is acquiring, could become a real threat to the dignity of the human condition. People, the nihilistic principle of Everything is permitted. that prevails in the digital world exposes those who react with indignation against the president's announcement. They are the promoters and beneficiaries of networks where insolence reigns; where the notion of limits is conspicuously absent and places young people in a state of development within a delusional framework; where the idea of ​​values ​​and responsibility plummets; where the communication space is left in the hands of the so-called technocastewhere ignorance, impunity, and reactionary radicalization are fostered. And any warning about this reality seems worth heeding. It's not just Sánchez: the governments of France and Germany have also raised the need to stop the waste from the technocasteHowever daring it may seem to challenge the immeasurable power of social media promoters and everything that accompanies them.

Democracy, care, truth, and dialogue are the keys to confronting the fascism that is growing everywhere. This is the recipe that Jordi Mir, PhD in Humanities and professor at UPF, presents in Our fascism (Cápsula Editorial).

I bitterly confess that I have seen lives torn apart by fanaticism, by criminal greed, by the violent defense of dogmas that had been deconstructed, by accidents that were not accidents but the consequence of recklessness, by loneliness or poverty, by climate catastrophes. Bad politics has consequences, and they are not good.

Political parties are fundamental components of the democratic system. Undeniable. And yet, political parties are now directly responsible for the growing disconnect between citizens and democracy as a system of representation and governance. This contradiction has become increasingly tangible in recent decades as a critical issue and part of the explanation for the rise of populist and anti-democratic options. Two fundamental elements of the democratic system have been in place since the Transition: the basic legislation on political organizations and the proportional representation electoral system. Spanish (and Catalan) regulations grant political parties exclusive power in the dual function of representing citizens and selecting candidates for positions of responsibility in various institutions. The legitimacy of proportional representation systems is more than established, but we also know that they include criteria such as "closed and blocked" lists, which limit and undermine the direct relationship between elected officials and voters. Beyond the party leaders and candidates for regional or local government, political parties are no longer able to maintain a dialogue with the citizens they theoretically represent. Does anyone know who "my representative" is? Who, beyond their immediate party and social circle, knows the members of one electoral list or another? How can we evaluate or criticize their legislative performance, or their direct contact with their electorate? The initial good intention (1978), which aimed to guarantee political pluralism and respect for minorities, has resulted in a clear disconnect between political forces and a society that has lost much of the trust and respect it should owe its representatives. The virtues of proportional representation were minimized from the outset by the definition of provincial constituencies that favored (or imposed) a two-party system considered a guarantee of stability.

What's happening today? 50 years since Franco died It is news that support for democracy in Catalonia is at its lowest level since 2012.

"The right to get married." "The right to get divorced." "The right to be a monarchist or a republican." "The right to have an abortion." "The right to have arrived in a dinghy and have your son play for the Spanish national team." These are just some examples of the campaign that has begun in different official languages of the State entitled Democracy is your power. The campaignWith advertisements, videos, banners, etc., it is part of the events taking place on the occasion of 50th anniversary of Franco's death. While approximately 150 activities have been carried out so far, the plan is to carry out another 480 between November and December.

Half a century after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, the health of democracy is faltering, and it is no coincidence that social unrest is coinciding with the rise of far-right populist forces, according to a study by the Institute of Political and Social Sciences (ICPS). The survey, presented this Wednesday, explains why support for democracy in Catalonia is at its lowest level since the worst of the economic crisis of this century, in 2012. Specifically, 19.4% of Catalans, nearly one million people, are open to a dictatorial system (up from 10%), 4.9% would prefer a dictatorship at certain times, and 2.6% did not know or did not answer. In 2012, when support was at its highest point, the percentage was 19.7%. In any case, 80% remain loyal to democracybut with a downward trend.

No one is surprised that people like Mazón come to power, and it's dishonest to feign ignorance now that it's too late. After accusations of censorship, the documentary was finally released.Flood alertThe program denounces how pressure on the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) has allowed construction in flood-prone areas. Those who were supposed to protect us were the ones granting the permits. The program ended with this quote from a geology professor: "It's not right to play with other people's risks to line my own pockets."

Recent political and opinion movements surprise us with their questioning of democracy as a political system. We take for granted that democracy is the desirable, normal, and permanent political system once achieved. However, history continually reminds us how vulnerable a democracy is. It is striking to see that the United States—the oldest democracy still in existence—could abolish it. As in enough precedents we know, this could even pass for a democratic decision.

The hawks are winning the New World Order battle: those of the Old Testament, with their eye for an eye, those who make life impossible (even more, those who make your life impossible), those of dehumanization, hatred, and division. Just listen to the tone and vocabulary with which US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth spoke to his generals.

Trump knows that we find him vulgar, that the only reason he gets his attention is because of the size of his cannons and his tariffs, and because every foreign ministry has taken note that his egomaniacal mindset needs a magic mirror to tell him every morning that he is the most feared man in the world. It doesn't matter if they throw him a closed-door reception if the TV can show him riding in a carriage alongside a king and inspecting toy soldiers.