He La Toja Forum It has lost its president this year, Josep Piqueand he has not been replaced by anyone because the alma mater of this space for debate, Amancio López Seijas, believes that the former Foreign Minister is irreplaceable. The fifth edition of the Forum that each year brings together on the island of La Toja politicians, economists, philosophers, thinkers, business executives, senior officials and representatives of the extinct two-party system and the nationalisms of yesteryear, with Mariano Rajoy at the head 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 from 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 replaces the Galician president Alfonso Rueda.
The king Philip VI has put the inauguration of the Forum on its 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.