The readings of the Spanish political class to start 2021

Many things can be said to the country’s politicians, but not that they read little. An unpretentious poll (of five deputies, one of them in the Government, and a mayor) shows that most have started the year with one or two readings underway. There are essays, novels and even hiking and gastronomy treatises to better overcome these days between two issues: 2020 is over and 2021 has just put the engine in motion. On Monday the 11th the Christmas truce will end.

The second vice president, Pablo Iglesias, is reading the new novel by Carlos Bardem, ‘Mongo Blanco’, which investigates the life of Pedro Blanco from Malaga, considered one of the greatest Spanish slavers. The author, who combines his two specialties, acting and history, put his eye and investigation into the adventures of this little-known character.

Also a novel is the election of the PP spokesperson in Congress, Cuca Gamarra, specifically, ‘A gentleman in Moscow’, by the American Amor Towles. Unlike Bardem’s, this narrative is not inspired by a real character, although it does advance through a situation that has become starkly real to us last year: that of confinement. ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ tells the life of a Russian aristocrat who spends his days locked up in a hotel after being convicted of publishing a subversive poem.

Another novel reads the deputy spokesperson for Cs, Edmundo Bal. Your bet is ‘Forgotten homeland’, by judge Manuel Ruiz de Larra, friend of yours. It is, in the words of the deputy, a political-judicial ‘thriller’ populated by personnel who could perfectly be the deputies who are currently starring in the vehement parliamentary debates.

The mayor of Zaragoza, Jorge Azcón, just getting started ‘The Narrow Corridor’, a book written by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, and recognizes that he is loving it. It is a treatise on freedom in certain countries. He adds that the analysis on the Chinese case is frankly revealing. Another essay to which Gamarra is submitted is ‘Concordia was possible’, by Adolfo Suárez and Abel Hernández.

More trials: Adriana Lastra, the PSOE spokeswoman, is excited about ‘Vibrant Feminism’, by journalist Ana Requena, a vindication of the freedom of female sexuality and pleasure. AND Joan Baldoví, The representative of Compromís in Congress, has chosen to document himself about two of his great hobbies: hiking, thanks to ‘Caminant del Paìs’, by two of his friends, a list of Valencian routes that the authors describe even sensorially, and the kitchen with ‘Xaló, traditional cuisine’, whose recipes are bringing him closer to being an accomplished chef.

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