The La Toja Forum has lost its president, Josep Piqué, this year, and has not replaced him with anyone because the alma mater of this debate space, Amancio López Seijas, believes that the former Foreign Minister is irreplaceable. The fifth edition of the Forum that brings together politicians, economists, philosophers, thinkers, business executives, senior officials and representatives of the extinct two-party system and the nationalisms of yesteryear on the island of La Toja every year, with Mariano Rajoy at the helm, has been conceived almost as a posthumous tribute to the deceased Piqué. The Galician businessman who devised this call wants to maintain the event at the beginning of autumn as an oasis of calm in the midst of ambient noise.
The Forum has also lost its host for the last four editions, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who for obvious reasons remains in Madrid awaiting the second vote on his investiture. Feijóo will be in La Toja on Saturday closing the conference. He is replaced by the Galician president Alfonso Rueda.
King Felipe VI has put the inauguration of the Forum on his agenda every year on this island-oasis, a unique place that seems safe from all conflicts. The head of state is comfortable giving relevance to a space for meeting and debate about the different crises that afflict parliamentary democracies and the new challenges of the liberal order. In his opening speech at the Forum, with a passage in the Galician language, the King referred to the crises and changes in the world, although with words that seem to have been said for the situation in Spain. “Continuous adaptation is an arduous task and that is why we need broad areas of agreement, concertation and certainty in what is permanent, in the values, virtues and timeless capacities in the creation of a more humanized humanity that is more aware of its survival” . The Monarch made a hymn to “calm and the will to understand different points of view” in reflecting on “the issues that mark our future and our present.”
Felipe VI included in his speech an element of optimism that is common in his messages in different areas. “There is no situation or problem, no matter how complex, that cannot be faced as an opportunity. Recovering and enhancing optimism and confidence in our strength and in ourselves, in our representative democracies is a necessary first step to move towards freer, more integrated and more prosperous societies”.
The head of state would have enough reasons for restlessness and pessimism in the face of different difficulties. Starting with his family conflicts and ending with the penultimate institutional crisis of frustrated investitures and unknowns about a future government formation or electoral repetition.
Former president Felipe González has been one of the most enthusiastic participants of the La Toja Forum. His hand in hand with former president Mariano Rajoy was the highlight of the conference in all four editions. Both aces have shouldered the defense of the Transition and the imperfect two-party system that guaranteed the stability of the Spanish governments until 2015. González has been absent from this fifth edition because he does not think it is appropriate to participate in a political debate forum in half of the investiture of a candidate for president of the Government.
