Ramiro Villapadierna: "It is not nationalism to say that Madrid is in fashion"

• Politics Toni Cantó will have a television program on 7NN after leaving the Ayuso Spanish Office

• Politics Toni Cantó does not believe that the Spanish office is "a beach bar": "I am not surprised by the virulence of the left"

• Culture Ramiro Villapadierna replaces Toni Cantó as director of the Spanish Office after three months with the vacant position

It has been two decades immersed in Europeanism, as a correspondent and special envoy in Eastern countries;

It has been 10 more years dedicated to Hispanicism, at the head of centers of the Cervantes Institute or the Vargas Llosa Chair, and now

assumes the direction of the Office of Spanish, famous for his predecessor, Toni Cantó .

He grants GRAN MADRID the first interview in his new position.

When the Office was created, did you think it was a beach bar as criticized by the opposition? Not at all, and whoever speaks like that does not know the project, they come from behind and simply accelerated at that post-electoral juncture.

When we have the [national] government with the largest number of advisers since the Transition, for the focus to be placed on this is unusual to say the least.

Beyond the appointment of who was there before, which we can discuss, [the debate] seemed strange, almost persecutory against the project and the person I will replace. Is this Office from Madrid really necessary? Absolutely.

Madrid is already late.

The big capitals compete in a global market to position themselves and we are far, far behind.

Berlin, Paris, London, in the past Barcelona, ​​have realized that it is you or me in the market for education, tourism, museums...

And there we are late.

That Madrid with an open profile existed before we knew it.

It had already become a magnetic pole.

Systematizing this process and giving it long-term projection was more urgent than necessary. What will be the strategic lines? My main line is that this is neither one person nor one party.

Madrid is a province with 16 universities, powerful cultural centers in the capital, and El Escorial, Alcalá, Aranjuez... The first thing is to offer consensus and a desire to join everyone, because culture is a common good.

And develop the academic and cultural agreements signed up to now. How will it materialize? It is a question of taking advantage of impulses that are natural: the new global profile of Madrid and the Latin boom have not been invented by us.

That boom began with literature 60 years ago,

and it has become unstoppable in music, cinema... Latinos have traditionally looked to the United States but now they have discovered Madrid.

And that Madrid disputes the throne to Miami or Los Angeles is totally legitimate.

If Madrid does better, then go ahead: we want to lead the Hispanic culture.

With that we will all win and we should find, as in large State projects such as the Cervantes Institute, support from everyone. Will it have a budget? We have the direct support of the Presidency and the cross-cutting support of all the Ministries and universities.

I have full endorsement.

The only question is the budget that has been left hanging;

we had an investment in this 2023 that would be greater if the items that were expanded had been approved. Considering the curriculum of his predecessor,

Were the merits studied more with you? My predecessor, Toni, has been badly known and has been persecuted;

he is a person of culture, and I will not go into the merits of him.

I will say that if anyone studies the memory of activities that he has left, he would have a very different idea from the one he wanted to project.

Personally, I appreciate the confidence coming from a path close to a project like this, from the outside, knowing how others work, seeing how sometimes we don't arrive or we are prey to complexes or historical atavisms that do not allow us to do things as everyone.

I was the first surprised because they would think of me, although, on the other hand, you say: 'It seems reasonable to bring an outside vision to explain ourselves'.

Spain is not so

He is a person of culture, and I am not going to go into his merits.

I will say that if anyone studies the memory of activities that he has left, he would have a very different idea from the one he wanted to project.

Personally, I appreciate the confidence coming from a path close to a project like this, from the outside, knowing how others work, seeing how sometimes we don't arrive or we are prey to complexes or historical atavisms that do not allow us to do things as everyone.

I was the first surprised because they would think of me, although, on the other hand, you say: 'It seems reasonable to bring an outside vision to explain ourselves'.

Spain is not so

He is a person of culture, and I am not going to go into his merits.

I will say that if anyone studies the memory of activities that he has left, he would have a very different idea from the one he wanted to project.

Personally, I appreciate the confidence coming from a path close to a project like this, from the outside, knowing how others work, seeing how sometimes we don't arrive or we are prey to complexes or historical atavisms that do not allow us to do things as everyone.

I was the first surprised because they would think of me, although, on the other hand, you say: 'It seems reasonable to bring an outside vision to explain ourselves'.

Spain is not so

He would have a very different idea from the one he wanted to project.

Personally, I appreciate the confidence coming from a path close to a project like this, from the outside, knowing how others work, seeing how sometimes we don't arrive or we are prey to complexes or historical atavisms that do not allow us to do things as everyone.

I was the first surprised because they would think of me, although, on the other hand, you say: 'It seems reasonable to bring an outside vision to explain ourselves'.

Spain is not so

He would have a very different idea from the one he wanted to project.

Personally, I appreciate the confidence coming from a path close to a project like this, from the outside, knowing how others work, seeing how sometimes we don't arrive or we are prey to complexes or historical atavisms that do not allow us to do things as everyone.

I was the first surprised because they would think of me, although, on the other hand, you say: 'It seems reasonable to bring an outside vision to explain ourselves'.

Spain is not so

I was the first surprised because they would think of me, although, on the other hand, you say: 'It seems reasonable to bring an outside vision to explain ourselves'.

Spain is not so

I was the first surprised because they would think of me, although, on the other hand, you say: 'It seems reasonable to bring an outside vision to explain ourselves'.

Spain is not so

We simply make a lot of theater out of it. How are we seen outside? You see yourself appreciated, envied, not in the category that our washing machines or our cars have, but in the cultural potential and of our language.

A privilege. Isn't the work of the Instituto Cervantes enough? There they work a lot and very well.

They have two mandates: to broaden the diffusion and to broaden the presence of Spanish.

A lot of work has been done in the first part and that is why we have always had so many examinees.

The second part, of the presence, much more intangible, is a torch that he was about to protect.

That is where this initiative from Madrid appears, which I hope will be replicated by Santiago, or again by Barcelona, ​​with that Ibero-American profile it had, or by Seville or Salamanca. In full political polarization,

Can Cervantes and the Office be complementary? The collaboration undertaken by Toni Cantó with the Instituto Cervantes is natural.

I think there is too much noise that hides what is really being done.

Madrid's project is to assume that such a rich and open province can lead the Hispanic culture.

I lived through the fall of the Eastern regimes.

The conquest of the East was like that of the West, but without cowboys.

The spearhead was culture.

France, for example, invested in giving away all its subtitled cinema.

And behind it came Renault, cement companies, energy companies... This has been invented and, nevertheless, Spain, with its recognized cultural potential, may still be about to lose trains.

Italy and France assumed long ago that their image in the world is cultural and the advantage of their cultural diplomacy should be our first example.

The strength of other countries is not cultural, but that of Spain, France and Italy is cultural.

It is our oil, we have no other.

Ramiro Villapadierna is a former journalist and cultural manager. BERNARDO DÍAZ

What is missing from the Spain brand? We need to create it for ourselves, to understand that cultural privilege.

We are not aware of the potential of the Hispanic sphere and of our language.

We enjoy multiculturalism without leaving our own home, that multiculturalism that the Romans had and not even a Dutchman has. What does Madrid have compared to Paris or Rome? In this global market of possibilities, there is no need for more merit than taking the first step. As an analyst of the nationalist phenomenon, don't you see a rise in Madrid's nationalism? A.- I returned a year and a half ago after 30 years abroad.

Madrid has never had a profile... We all took pride in the global success of Barcelona in the 90s, and we didn't say: 'Oh, what about us?'

That something that was already happening in Madrid is now being questioned... It should satisfy everyone.

It is the preferred destination for European Erasmus and Latin Americans who chose Miami.

And that has happened naturally;

Others would like it to happen naturally to them.

There is simply a government that is going to work on it.

Berlin was also slow to believe it, and that has happened to Madrid, now it is fashionable, and I do not call believing it nationalism or particularism.

They are not talking about congratulating themselves on the peculiarities of Madrid, but rather that it has become international.

And it brings it to the whole.

All of this is the opposite of nationalism. Why did you enter politics? The president of the Community and the Minister of Culture asked me and I said yes, but to prepare it, which is a very long-term journey.

The counselor, when I was presenting some projects in Miami with the Vargas Llosa Chair, told me: '

You don't know how I would like these things to be done in Madrid'.

And I, who only knew her from these types of projects, replied: 'We want to do them, I have 30 projects.'

And she: 'No, we would like you to do them with us.

I think the president will be delighted with this type of profile, think about it.'

That's how it was. Will you continue with the Vargas Llosa Chair? Actively and passively, I have been told that there are no incompatibilities, but I do see them and I will take some time on this unique project with a vocational Nobel Prize winner from Madrid for 30 years, living between us. He said that it is a long-term project.

Toni Cantó lasted 435 days. This project is here to stay... It was born a bit in a hurry, although it was in the drawer, and perhaps not in the best way, but it was an emergency for Madrid.

Under those circumstances,

Ayuso has made me clearly see the support, for the good of the people of Madrid and for a common State project.

If I spend more or less time, it doesn't worry me, the project will continue. Q.- Have you had contact with Toni Cantó? Yes, it was the first person I called after saying yes to Marta Rivera de la Cruz.

I have his phone number for issues such as the Hispanic Festival, which he launched.

I thought: what less than he is the first to call and thank him for what he has done.

He has left a lot of ideas that we are studying.

He is a very generous guy, he was happy and made himself available. Hispanic Day is also a protest by the population against colonialism. Revisionists will have to be treated academically.

There are always people who are going to protest, what I do want to say is that the Hispanic Festival is the first State initiative,

and from Madrid as part of the Administration, which recognizes the presence, value, variety and accents that all the Spanish-speaking communities that have chosen Madrid bring us.

They work, they ride the Metro next to us, but there has been no one to celebrate their presence here, what they bring us.

Whoever sees something negative there, let them look at it. Belgium has apologized for slavery.

Should Spain ask for forgiveness, as Mexico demands? The result of the drift in Mexico is that for the first time tens of thousands of Mexicans arrive in Spain fleeing populism or navelism.

As Octavio Paz taught very clearly, there are those who look at their navels so they don't have to get down to business. Why did you leave journalism?

Is it strange to go to the other side? Journalism moved away from me rather, with sadness I had to admit it.

It entered into a major crisis and networks of historical correspondents disappeared.

I arrived at the Instituto Cervantes and I got my first place because I was the only one in history who spoke Czech.

On the other hand, as journalists we work on the other side and approaching politics seems staining, but professionals can contribute ideas to governments.

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