Barcelona Metropolis

España, el pacto y la furia [Spain, the Pact and the Fury] (Arpa, 2024), a book spanning just over 600 pages, distils the key elements of twenty years of Spanish politics (2004-2024). It is interpreted through the analytical, well-informed and eloquently captured perspective of journalist Enric Juliana, who serves as a keen observer for Catalonia’s foremost newspaper from his base in Madrid.

On 14 April 2004, just days after the Atocha bombing and the subsequent Socialist victory in the elections of 14 May, Enric Juliana, deputy director at La Vanguardia, moved to Madrid. His book España, el pacto y la furia is a mix of past, present and future history, offering a very personal yet quite paradigmatic overview of the last twenty years of politics in Spain and the international intricacies that shape and impact it.

It is a notable book from various perspectives. It is not a journalistic chronicle aiming to meticulously incorporate all noteworthy elements of these twenty years. Instead, the reader will find everything that has been and remains significant, interpreted and situated within its own analytical and unconventional framework. Enric Juliana recounts his beginnings as a journalist and his subsequent journey, highlighting his time in Italy as a correspondent for La Vanguardia and its significance in his development and interpretative approach, as evidenced in the book. As he states in the book’s epilogue, he is particularly interested in the intersection of geography and politics, and in the constraints that constant tensions ultimately create, leading to both fury among opponents and the need for agreement to navigate them without harm.

And Madrid at the centre of it all

The chosen vantage point, and simultaneously the central figure of the book, is Madrid. Madrid D.F., in Juliana’s own words; the hub of political power, but increasingly also the hub of economic power; the Madrid where the administrative and judicial apparatus of the entire State is concentrated; the Madrid that is accumulating influence and power from the Latin American elites settling there; the Madrid that exists within its own media bubble, full of economic and political intersections; the Madrid of the Toro Segador, the oracle created by Juliana which serves as his alter ego when needed, as he himself says, to “order ideas” or point towards new avenues of interpretation.

The book, tracing the political events of these intense and turbulent years, sheds light on some recurring patterns in Juliana’s perspective. As a Catalan in Madrid, he feels both obligated and willing to act as a mediator of what happens on both sides of the Barcelona-Madrid high-speed train line. Enric Juliana is undoubtedly a well-read and respected figure in Madrid (La Vanguardia is a highly influential newspaper in the Madrid political scene) for his ability to interpret and shape events in Catalonia. In Catalonia, he serves as a translator of the noise and commotion of the State’s capital, which is often difficult to grasp from over 600 kilometres away, particularly when there is little Catalan representation in the administrative and judicial apparatus of the capital.

Juliana’s style also adds depth to his chronicles. His articles are brimming with cultured references, encompassing literary, artistic and, above all, historical allusions, which help to contextualise the current events that now reach citizens in a multitude of ways. What many people appreciate about these chronicles is that they provide additional layers of reference and context to what they already know, which are strictly facts or events. Juliana also engages with significant voices who constantly enrich his analysis. Throughout the book, for example, there is a consistent effort to explain in Madrid what is characteristic of what he calls “the Spain of the east”, with its undeniable historical underpinnings and communication deficits, such as the long-standing blockade of the Mediterranean axis by Madrid’s and the State’s centripetal logic. The issue of plurinationality is also a recurring theme, appearing in various forms, from historical reminders and debates in the Constituent Cortes, to moments when the major parties either embrace or avoid the topic, and, of course, the entire saga of the Statute of Autonomy, the role of Maragall, the Constitutional Court’s ruling, or the onset of the procés and its still unfolding judicial and political implications.

Juliana’s articles have many layers of interpretation, much like we would now refer to as hypertext. Therefore, this book, aside from being a compilation of a politically intense period, will serve in the future to contextualise elements and dilemmas that will remain relevant. From this viewpoint, we could say that Enric Juliana is not merely a chronicler of events; he is also an active participant on the stage he presents to us, helping us to understand.