The space where Valencia has been trying to understand itself for 40 years

Valencian civil society, half mythological animal half real body, has endured the last decades sandwiched between crises. Those that have to do with its poor structure, with the reconversion of part of its bourgeoisie (and the global transformation, with the old industrialists becoming financiers), and also with a certain complex regarding Madrid and Barcelona, dragging along the belief of the era influence of Valencian power beyond its borders.

In that journey, which could have perfectly begun in the nineties and continues to this day, one of the few common denominators that has survived has been the Manuel Broseta Meeting Club.. It was founded in 1984 by a society trying to understand itself, in the midst of modernization of a country that was no longer the same. Four lawyers, a journalist, an educator and an industrialist had the vocation of bringing together protagonists with different ideological inclinations and promoting debate.

Almost forty years later, nearly 500 guests have attended its meetings, from Santiago Carrillo to José María Aznar, from Manuel Fraga to Jordi Pujol, from Artur Mas to Pedro Sánchez, from Eduardo Zaplana to Ximo Puig. The first guest was Gregorio Peces Barba, then president of the Congress of Deputies, and the last – so far – will be this coming Monday the new Archbishop of Valencia, Enrique Benavent, whose figure, due to its unexpected nature, continues to generate expectation.. It has also served to introduce people who were beginning to connect with the city to the local environment, as was the case of Ricardo Bofill or Zubin Mehta..

The morning in January 1992 in which an ETA commando killed Manuel Broseta, shooting him in the back of the head in his office in Blasco Ibañez when he had just finished teaching, Broseta was also the president of the Meeting Club. Since then, it began to bear his name “as a symbol of rejection of any type of violence.”. His figure, associated with listening, became an adjective of a club that sought to listen to the context of its time..

After its first six presidents, the seventh was a woman, Amparo Maties, who won the presidency, which she has held since 2016.. As since its origins, the organization is structured around a board of directors appointed by a general assembly that brings together all the associated people.. It is financed through the fees paid by its members (around 400), without sponsorships.. “The vocation of the Club, as a civil society entity, is to be a space of neutrality, meeting and dialogue,” explains its president..

Perhaps the most surprising thing throughout this time is that no other alternative has appeared or been consolidated as a broad space for dialogue.. Either they have been ephemeral initiatives or they have dealt with narrow segments of society.. The Club, however, now faces a few new needs: that of claiming the fact of the match itself as an attractive attraction, beyond the skirmishes over X (old Twitter); as well as expanding his influence beyond his own circle.

Renew your demographics

The shrinking impact of traditional media also means that the usual speakers resonate less strongly and the dialogue must find other channels.. “The profile of the member – they explain from the Club – has been maintained since its beginnings, it is that of a person with intellectual restlessness, with training and some of them are representatives of organized civil society entities, and are influential people in different areas of society, economic, social, cultural, scientific and political”.

Regarding the danger of failing to renew their own demographics, they consider that “there are young people with this profile and who share these same concerns, who are highly prepared and who hold positions of responsibility.. The closest are the sons and daughters of our members who have closely lived their parents' experience of what it means to belong to an entity whose conferences are attended to obtain information, give opinions and reflect.”. Promoting the generational change of members was one of the objectives of Maties' candidacy.

In the face of polarization and acrimony in the public debate, this kind of micro-Swiss Valencian style claims its neutral position in promoting “the active participation in public life of members and sympathizers from their own political ideology, with their deep respect to people through dialogue, contrast of opinions and exchange of ideas”.

On the way to half a century, some of its pending issues involve expanding its own physical presence in the city (meetings are always held at the SH Valencia Palace hotel) and promoting alternative dialogue formats, an evolution in the face of a society that, as in those early eighties, bears little resemblance to that of his parents.