Catalonia is an old Mediterranean country which has learnt, by force of blows and through its tiring history, that one cannot only entrust oneself to public institutions – many times considered to be extraneous- the defence and the fomentation of the own culture, which has always been regarded as the basic identifying mark which the catalonian historical reality is based on. And this is one of the reasons that explain the undoubted capacity of the civic society of this area in order to generate numerous initiatives designed to the realization of diverse activities, but all of them united by a last identical purpose: the support, the evolution and the improvement of its communal personality.

In this framework is registered the birth, last year, of the initiative TRIBUNA BARCELONA, that in spite of its modesty and its youth, is armed with the two characteristics that traditionally define the initiatives of the catalonian civil society in this field: plurality in its origins and solidarity in its development.

Plurality in its origins is stated in the record of all the entities, which joined their efforts to make the project of TRIBUNA BARCELONA become true, and which are the same that are represented in its current Executive Committee: from public institutions to professional colleges, from diverse associations to sports clubs, all of them united by the same design: to give Barcelona a forum of opinion which can receive in its bosom the debate about the great questions that constitute the horizon, imposing but fascinating, of this change of millennium.

Solidarity in its development is also obvious if it is verified that in the essence of TRIBUNA BARCELONA are represented all the political parties that make up the catalonian parliamentary group; if it is observed that the record of the guest lecturers agrees with evident intellectual and broad-minded approaches.

All this defines a project that is becoming true, in the only possible way in this kind of initiatives: with a clear conscience of their limits, serving the community and loving freedom.

Juan-José López Burniol