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and what lives in Barcelona?
I arrived in Barcelona in 2000 by chance and stayed there for two years; I went to Berlin, but I came back...
Why did he come back?
At first, it was a coincidence brought about by my wife, a Catalan from Barcelona. Today Barcelona is my vital choice.
Are you thinking of returning to France?
I go there a lot and I have a house there, but my center of gravity remains Barcelona.
What does Barcelona have that Paris doesn't?
Barcelona is the confluence of many transits: it is the Mediterranean, essential for me, it is well connected. And besides, I'm already Catalan, as Pujol said, I live and work in Catalonia.
What is Barcelona today?
It has three meanings at the same time that sometimes diverge: it is a large Spanish city, the capital of Catalonia and it is a large city in Europe.
Three senses in conflict?
They are like three donkeys that don't go in the same direction, but sometimes cross each other, and that tension generates Barcelona's dynamism.
Other tensions in the city?
That of a historic left, consolidated in a century of labor struggle against a Catalan bourgeoisie that is always fearful of change and that wants to get rich without being noticed. That tension also energizes Barcelona.
What did he like and what didn't he like about her?
I arrived at the great moment of the Barcelona brand: the Forum and the seeding with the Olympic Games. And today, like sets in math, it's an intersection of all that. What I was passionate about when I arrived was his sense of the capital of Catalonia. And I learned Catalan.
He speaks it perfectly... Why?
I'm an Arabist and I'm passionate about its medieval origins: Ramon Llull was too and there is the renaissance of the Romance languages in which knowledge is no longer only in Latin. And thus begins the rich mix of Barcelona.
What goes beyond Catalan in her?
Its identity tension continues to be revitalizing. In France, on the other hand, no one questions French and it has been possible to erase all identity other than the centralized one: Catalan and Provençal, in addition to Breton or Basque, have been liquidated. They are still alive here.
How did the trial go?
It was interesting to observe it back in the day. The conclusion today is that Spain needs dialogue and reforms in its institutions.
Which tension predominates now?
Barcelona is a laboratory. I live by the Sant Antoni market, and the Cerdà plan is still alive, because of its vision of the future, and it continues to make Barcelona an international capital.
Doesn't the urbanism of Paris fascinate him?
Paris has ended up being a museum; Barcelona remains a great living laboratory of ideas, urban planning, buildings, projects... And this spirit guarantees its European capital.
We no longer have Islamist or nationalist terrorism... For now?
The causes are still there ... Now, latent.
Have they been defeated, the terrorists?
The intelligence of the states acts, and they no longer have money; but they will hit us again if the conditions of 2015 repeat themselves.
Are you interested in the European project?
People ask what we gain from Europe, because they forget that the EU exists to avoid wars and it avoids them and has been efficient now in the face of gas cuts. He has to move forward.
Has the Arab world progressed?
This question today is a provocation. All the hopes of 2010 have ended in catastrophes: Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia... And their young people have no future and emigrate.
Even health workers migrate here.
Now you take advantage of a generation; but by emigrating they drain the future of their countries.
Do you see an alternative to emigration?
We create a great common space like the EU: another union EU- Arab countries; because if we only deprive the Arabs of their best youth, you leave them only with poverty and, in desperation, terrorism. Enemy Factories
Will prosperity defeat Islamic terrorism as it defeated the nationalist?
I have finished a book, Desertar, which analyzes that dilemma of the wars of the last century.
Would you desert?
I reflect: I tell the story of a deserter and that of a German diplomat who was a communist until the end, faithful to utopia.
A utopia that ended up being a prison?
I tell stories that Semprún told me about when he defected from communism.
Here he showed his lucidity...
I remember every one of his words.
But I wanted to make Paris in Madrid and the Von Thyssen collection was brought there.
Still, he was too French for Madrid and that's why he didn't end up shining there.
What cause or war would he not desert?
The decision is not to die or not to die for a cause, but to make others die for it.
If they're just enemies...
The cause may require someone to die. But you think: "If it's not me, better".
