HR4RS stamp
Rosa Marquez of the Order
The president of the Senate, Ander Gil, has been in charge of closing the fourteenth edition of the summer course 'Parliament, society and polarization in times of crisis and elections' which, like every year, is held by the URJC in collaboration with the Association of Journalists Parliamentarians. Gil began his speech by acknowledging that "we live in a society overwhelmed by discomfort, in a context of tension, but I think that pessimism is overrated and today I want to break a spear in favor of optimism, because it is from where you can make a policy better". For the president of the Senate "the use of emotions, the lack of arguments and the disqualification of the adversary avoid creating a healthy public space" and has summoned politicians and journalists to lower the tone to avoid citizen disaffection. “The anger of the hemicycle does not correspond to the normality of the corridors. I am an admirer of good parliamentary chronicles, of ironic, intelligent and well-written stories and I ask you not to become war correspondents in Congress or in the Senate. Bring out the colors in bad behavior, but also encourage excellence.
Gil has been emphatic in his condemnation of populism: “Allowing ourselves to be guided by simple solutions to complex problems serves as a placebo, but in the long term we will all come out badly. We cannot give a citizenry overwhelmed by the crisis bread and circuses”. As for social networks, he considers that they resort too often to provocative content to capture attention. "The agreements, the elegant speeches, the moderate words are not seen in my opinion reflected in their fair measure while the outbursts are often seen as exercises in sincerity and the agreements as betrayals of the principles". To avoid polarization, Gil is committed to governing with common sense and honesty, "today more than ever we need politicians to understand the needs of citizens, that the media fulfill their duty to report truthfully and contrastedly and understand the public space as a place where we all have a place. If we increase trust, we reduce disaffection.”
International relations
Araceli Mangas, Professor of Public International Law and International Relations at the Complutense University of Madrid, also participated in this last session of the course. Mangas has given a master class on international relations in which she has analysed, among other topics, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and how it is affecting Europe. "Using economic warfare and sanctions has been negative for the EU in maintaining its influence over the rest of the world." The professor also sees with concern the rise of populism, “authoritarianism is flourishing all over the world. There are personal and authoritarian regimes in countries like Turkey or even in the United States with Trump and they are internal coups by the politicians themselves elected by the people” and she concluded her speech by calling for more investment in science and technology. “The only way out that remains for us is to become a technological power, for that it is not enough to have the latest generation mobile phones and fiber optics, we must generate knowledge and master science.”