The worn pink cotton t-shirts, PSOE merchandise, sell for 5.99 euros, while a cortado served at the bar across the street costs 3 euros; and a coffee with milk, 3.50. Such a market dysfunction explains a lot of little things that have happened in the Western economic system in the last 20 years, everything that must have happened in the production chain for a garment to reach the final consumer with so little cost and for that sip of caffeine in a paper cup to cost an arm and a leg (half a t-shirt, to be precise). Contortions of rules and logics that are also found in the genesis of this international progressive summit held in Barcelona.
Saving Capitalism from Itself: A Sober Approach
Capitalism must be saved from itself every now and then, it is often said. This message has circulated these two days of the forum through the round tables in a sober manner, with little fanfare, minimal fervor, the absolute antithesis of those conservative action conferences in the United States that, since Donald Trump came – and returned – to power, have become a juicy fruit for environment chroniclers. The festivities, moreover, are held in post-procés Barcelona, the capital of that Catalonia of a Salvador Illa who, as some illustrious members of the select Cercle d’Economia comment, has killed independentism by boredom.
“We have to lower the tension, people don’t live only on epic, people want solutions,” says former Catalan president José Montilla as he walks through the event’s corridors. “This is not a grassroots assembly, most of the people who speak here have government responsibilities and seek to coordinate a response, not inflamed proclamations,” says another veteran socialist participating in the event.
Ana María Archila: From Elevator Warrior to City Hall
At three in the afternoon on Friday, in the Ernest Lluch room, a 47-year-old woman with her hair tied back, an impeccable white blazer, and disarming diplomacy appears at the round table before so many curious people that it is hard to believe that, in fact, it is her, Ana María Archila, the elevator warrior, interviewed by EL PAÍS six years ago in very different circumstances.
In 2018, this activist of Colombian origin jumped forever onto the national scene in the United States because she managed, at the last minute, to get a Republican senator named Jeff Flake to change his vote and force an investigation against Brett Kavanaugh, about to be confirmed Supreme Court judge, for accusations of rape. Archila and another young woman exhorted Flake with such force when he was trying to go to his office that the guy ended up changing his vote. Trump called her a “professional screamer.”
Archila no longer assaults senators in elevators. Today she is the head of the international affairs office of the new New York City Council. From social organizations, she moved to the working families’ party of the city, from there to Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, and now, to manage a budget of about 120,000 million dollars, but with endless needs. Reforms or revolution? I ask her in this very different 2026. She answers very illustratively: “The work has to be very specific and very material, we have just completed 100 days in government and one of the things we have celebrated is that we have covered 100,000 potholes that were in the asphalt of the streets of New York, people need very specific material victories,” she says. “Zohran made some promises that are not optional, such as universal free childcare or making buses go faster… Those are the material improvements,” she adds.
No Storming the Heavens: A Focus on Practicality
In this meeting, no one proposes storming the heavens, nor dying for ideas (or, if one must die, fine, but let it be a slow death, as Georges Brassens sang). Everything happens in calm, even in the union meeting. Unai Sordo, general secretary of Comisiones Obreras, explains it this way: “The social democratic vector of the meeting is evident, although the Latin American references present here go beyond that framework. But this is above all the counterpoint to the global wave of the far right, who today are the true disruptors of order, even from an aesthetic point of view, with that hooligan, even rude tone. All that, even the outlandish point, is on the other side and that is also a message.”
But we were talking about Montilla earlier. More than calm, the socialist observes a climate of “optimism and vitality” at the summit. And it is true that the mood of the speakers – between hugs, mutual congratulations, and selfies – is cheerful, relaxed, there is a good vibe. “Not only are we sisters in many ways, but we are Thelma and Louise, as we appear in a poster that her daughter made for us,” says economist Mariana Mazzucato to the Vice President of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera, who introduces her in one of the acts. “Zapatero is the most feminine president I have ever met,” says Minister Ana Redondo at another table. The former Spanish president is seen to have grown, he skips times and themes, looks at the entire audience from left to right non-stop and leaves dramatic silences between phrases (years ago, few remember this, in Spain they called him ‘sosoman’).
Vox vs. Neighbors: A Street-Level Drama
In the street, there was more spice, something like a scene from the series ‘Aquí no hay quien viva’. Vox had called a concentration in the morning in front of the fairgrounds, located in L’Hospitalet del Llobregat, the red belt of Barcelona, and ran into the block of neighbors of their worst nightmare. Ignacio Garriga, the leader in Catalonia, could barely be heard because from the adjacent building, ‘Bella Ciao’ and ‘Ay, Carmela’ were playing at full blast. At one point, Garriga says that they were there to oppose “multilateralism and other progressive nonsense,” but the “ay, Carmela, ay, Carmela…” swallowed him whole. Then the shouting began. “Fascist!” a young woman from the fifth floor said. “Posh! That apartment costs a lot of money!” a man from below replied. “Down with narco-dictatorships!” another demonstrator said. “Down with the Nazis!” someone from their window replied. And the thing died down, because neither Vox had much desire for war, on this sunny day of 21 degrees that gave the left a boost of self-esteem.
Source: https://elpais.com/espana/2026-04-18/el-espiritu-mamdani-en-barcelona-de-asaltar-los-cielos-a-arreglar-el-asfalto.html
