Address by the mayor of welcome to the Catalan Republic

Good evening to all residents from Sitges

Good evening citizens of the new republic of Catalonia ... the new democratic and free republic of Catalonia.

Without a doubt, we live very intense days.

A few days that will go down in history, because we are part of the story, because, from now on we are history.

With open judicial processes, with political prisoners, with police charges, with violence ... we are here, because we have determination, because we have conviction, because we have a commitment ... and above all because we have dignity. The collective dignity of people. From a town that on October 1 voted YES to make Catalonia a new independent state in Europe. 

Welcome to the new republic of Catalonia!

The next few days we will have a lot of work. The republic that was born today is like a baby.

A baby with the weaknesses innate to newborns but with all the immense desire to live existing in those who see the light for the first time. 

Our Republic is made up mothers and fathers, we are grandparents and grandmothers, we are brothers and sisters, we are godfathers ... enough to make the Republic grow, to take care of it and make it mature.

This baby was born today as an independent and Free State .An independent state for all Catalans. ...And for all Catalans. 

For those who promoted their creation and have made it possible, from the smallest village in the whole wide country, going through all the other neighborhoods, towns, cities and counties. ...But also for those who did not believe in it or did not share it.

Our thanks to everyone. And above all, our thanks to the Catalan institutions that, following the people's desire, made the dream of millions of Catalans possible: the deputies of the parliamentary groups of the Parliament of Catalonia, headed by President Carme Forcadell, the Counselors of the Government of the Generalitat, Vice President Oriol Junqueras and President Carles Puigdemont.

The Country that was born today belongs to all. As has always been Catalonia. Without any distinction.

Neither origin, nor language, gender, belief, or sexual orientation, nor political choice, nor feelings or emotions ...Because during we managed to learn many things, including managing emotions.

I would like, as the mayor of Sitges, that we should take this night, once again and without ever tired of saying it and doing so, the commitment to make this new republic for everyone.Sitges can be a sample, of this normality, of this inclusion, of this tolerance and of this coexistence. Here, in the town, we have never made any distinction between the hundreds of nationalities of different origins , we are all residents of Sitges.We will not do it now either. 

Especially because freedom, democracy and republican values ​​of equality and fraternity are what unite us. 

It's precisely what yesterday I had the opportunity to explain, in an interview in international media, specifically in the national television of Belarus. Free states are the means to build the values ​​of freedom, equality and fraternity and, above all, to make them possible. Free states have the tools to make people's lives better and to make their personal and collective rights possible.

Because the nation is the people. The nation is a network of solidarity between people. The nation is a commitment to personal and collective rights. Like any nation, this is the Catalan nation. This is the birth of the Catalan nation with its own state..

The Catalan nation, which today has agreed to be a free republic, is the best instrument that we will

Have to make people's rights to be possible. It's not born against anyone. It's born to make people's lives better.

La nation catalane s'est battue pour obtenir cet instrument. Et le peuple de la Catalogne a été ferme dans sans sa décision lors des dernières élections catalanes et à la suite du référendum: étre un Etat libre et souverain. 

We have the republic. We have the free and independent state that we dreamed for,. But the work is not over. Now it's just beginning. We must built it. We will probably have to protect it from external and internal attacks. Fears and uncertainties will appear. But we will raise it with the same spirit of dialogue, civility and peace that has guided us to get here.

Let us remember all those who have preceded us. Let's not forget the ancestors. Remember those who have not seen it. But in a special way we think tonight, not only in them, but in us and especially in our children, and in those who will come after us.

We build the republic for ourselves and for future generations. 

Let's do it by clutching our hand for peace, looking at our eyes and never losing our smile.

As Gandhi said: "Let's follow the change we want to see in the world."

Long live Catalonia!

Address by the Mayor in the tribute to President Companys

Councilors of the City Council of Sitges, Mayor Jordi Serra, Mayor Pere Junyent, Representatives of entities and political groups, residents of Sitges, Beloved and dear compatriots. 

October 15, 2017. Just as the past year we are gathered before the monument to the memory of President Lluis Companys, the Martyr President.

Today we remember and honor the memory of Lluís Companys i Jover, President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, captured by the Gestapo and handed over to the Spanish fascist authorities and executed by a firing squad of the Spanish army on October 15, 1940 .Let us not forget that Lluís Companys was the only democratically elected president executed during the Second World War. Pablo Casado, a person that holds an important position at Partido Popular made parallels with such crimes, and he threatened to repeat them. Absolutely miserable.

Companys was the militant President of ERC, but it was, above all, the president of all the Catalans. He was admired by many citizens, no matter their political opinion. I see many similarities with the admiration felt by many people for the President of Generalitat of Catalonia, for the Vice President Oriol Junqueras and the Catalan government at large. Precisely because they are and will be the presidents of all Catalans, today we are happy to share this event with people from different political parties and representatives from different associations present in our city. What unite us is greater than what divides us. Because we all share the essential values ​​of democracy.

These values ​​were already shared during the difficult times of the Second Republic, Civil War and Francoism. I thank the family Tubau i Llorià for having access to the original letters that President Lluís Companys directed to Enric Tubau i Perelló (grandfather of our Rosa Tubau, Culture Councilor, here present) and father of Josep Maria Tubau i Gallinat (also present), in the difficult times of exile and repression. I would like to read a brief fragment of one of the letters, that reflect the solidarity between the defenders of the Catalan nation and those that suffered reprisals after defeat.

He stated: "Friend Tubau, I just wanted to tell you how I appreciate your sacrifice and remember the services provided to the Catalan cause, and do not doubt that now, that I have more possibilities, I will exert all my influence and I will exercise all the functions to be especially careful to promote any help you might need". (Lluís Companys)

Today, more than 70 years after his death, we can say that, despite the current execrable behavior of Spain towards Catalonia and all the constant humiliations, Lluís Companys would be proud of living with us what we are living now, holding hands and embracing us in peace. Today, we are not fearful anymore and we are united. We are not afraid of defeat, but we are even less afraid of victory because we are convinced that we will win .They don't even answer if we ask for dialogue. They don't even accept negotiation or arbitration. The world is witness and we will not stop. 

The Martyr President suffered the brutality of fascist authorities that led him to the death squad. In 2017, many Catalans (of all ages, villages, towns and cities) suffered the repression and police brutality (because some Spanish political or police authority gave the order to act with violence ) against people who peacefully defended the right to vote or were standing at a queue to exercise their democratic right to vote. We will never cease to repeat it: in Democracy, any form of state violence is unacceptable!

We will never forget October 1. Voters being clubbed, all the violent shoveling voters, the militarization of the police forces (which should protect people) ... were placed under the orders of a political stance .The violence has been denounced by various international organizations in the field of human rights. Because, yes, very fundamental rights have been violated and human rights have been stepped up.

But, President Lluís Companys, we will never forget October 1 because, above all, it was the day that the people of Catalonia freely and democratically exercised their right to decide, their inalienable right to self-determination .It was the day that, with all the police repression and all judicial actions ordered by the public prosecutor's office, the Spanish government, the Spanish intelligence services ... a whole country, in a large network of solidarity and personal and collective commitment, exercised the right to make a referendum with everything against. This network of solidarity and commitment is called the Catalan nation.

And the Catalan nation decided. Therefore, before they snatch our sovereignty (the one granted by limited constitutional autonomy), it's time to exercise full sovereignty. It is time to fulfill, with intelligence and cleverness, with civility and peace, the will of the majority emanating from ballot boxes. Confidence, perseverance, resistance and determination.

Let me, finally, read a fragment of the words of President Lluís Companys: “I will thank God for giving me such a beautiful death defending my ideals. He wanted this destiny, and I still give him the gratitude of this placidity and serenity that fills me when thinking about death, which I see approaching fearlessly .I could not hope as a humble human being for such a dignifying end. For Catalonia and all that represents concerning peace, justice and love”.

For him and for those words, and for so many others who have preceded us, we must continue to fight peacefully with our hands, and dearly caress with our fingers the longed freedom and the struggle for a more prosperous country with more social justice .The Government of Sitges and the municipal groups engaged in the process will not deceive you, and neither the Government of Catalonia nor the Parliament!

As Companys said: “Where freedom dwells, my homeland rests”. Honor and glory to the Martyr President. Long live Catalonia!

Ban de la Festa Major de Sant Bartomeu 2017

Vilatanes, vilatans. Dia rere dia d’aquest estiu tan xafogós, l’espetec de sensacions i emocions que és la nostra Festa Major s’anuncia, com ho fa cada any, oferint senyals del que seran la vigília i la diada, els jorns de més intensa celebració que es viuen a la nostra vila al llarg del cicle festiu. Com si d’un castell de focs es tractés, ens arriben aquells avisos que precedeixen l’es-pectacle. El brogit dels assajos de balls i músiques, les presentacions multitudinàries, el programa d’actes sortit d’impremta són, entre d’altres, els avisos a quarts d’una celebració que no deixa moment per al respir.

Amb prop de set segles d’història, Sant Bartomeu ha volgut per als sitgetans una efemèri-de lluïda i arrelada. En el seu honor, hem aconseguit una festa admirada arreu, que ha obtingut reconeixements, el darrer d’ells el de Festa Patrimonial d’Interès Nacional, con-juntament amb Santa Tecla. Podríem enlluernar-nos i dormir-nos en els llorers de la com-plaença, però un cop més s’anuncia una celebració que pugna per l’excel·lència. Aconse-guim que el folklore més arrelat passi de generació en generació, mentre anem amanint el calendari d’actes amb petits canvis que la fan més viva i adaptada als temps que canvien, d’un segle XXI que empeny amb la força de valors nous o renovats.

Una Festa Major com la nostra mereix que la gaudim amb generositat, però també amb civisme i amb la necessària precaució. És el moment de saltar, ballar i esbargir-se, sense oblidar que s’ha d’anar amb molt de compte amb les tradicionals carretilles i els elements pirotècnics. Per aquest motiu, recomanem seguir tots els consells de seguretat i que els vehicles no s’estacionin en els recorreguts de les processons i de les cercaviles. Els establi-ments i comerços convé que estiguin tancats el dia 24 d’agost, diada de Sant Bartomeu, festa local. Per últim, demanem que es prenguin les mesures necessàries de prevenció i autoprotecció en vehicles, tendals, aparadors, botigues i domicilis particulars amb la fina-litat de prevenir de possibles desperfectes i danys derivats de la crema de la pirotècnia. S’ha de tenir cura amb els infants i la gent gran, dos col·lectius especialment vulnerables.

Sitgetanes, sitgetans, visitants, arriba el moment de deixar-se anar amb el primer toc de la gralla i la flaire de l’alfàbrega. Sigueu protagonistes i espectadors privilegiats d’aquesta gran experiència que és la Festa Major de Sitges, una celebració que ens remet als ances-tres i alhora ens projecta al futur com una comunitat amb identitat sòlida i reconeguda. 

Gloriós Sant Bartomeu, que de Sitges n’és patró, visca la Festa Major!

Tourism and positioning: new challenges

Last week, we held the first meeting of the new Council of Tourism Sitges. It is a new body promoted by the City Council, and has the presence and participation of all public and private entities charged with managing and planning local tourism. There are representatives of hotels, restaurants and bars; also representatives of campsites and apartments; the services of the beaches or marinas as well as the Heritage Association and the Garraf Park, among many others. The new Council compositions plural and multifaceted, because tourism today is transversal and needs planning from different areas, both public and private, including associations.

The Council of Tourism's mission is to plan the promotion policy of the city of Sitges and detail the actions and the line that interests the whole municipality, both from a global perspective as in specific sector-wise actions. In this regard, the Council will have working groups in different areas and among its objectives has conducted an ongoing dialogue with the public to obtain their concerns and proposals.

The triangle composed by public sector - private sector – community (residents of the municipality) is one of the foundations of the new Council of Tourism. The bilateral work that has distinguished tourism planning policies in recent decades has been replaced the new trilateral policies. In this sense, the new Council of Tourism was already designed from the very beginning along this line to adapt to new challenges. One of the first actions will be the Public hearing to present the Quality Tourism Plan 2017-2021, which will on 5 June. In this event, the public hearing will submit a strategic plan for tourism, for which we want a consensus among governments, private sector and citizens.

Tourism is the industry of Sitges. For over fifty years the town has been living from tourism, and during more than twenty tourism is the breadwinner for all year round, thanks to conferences and conventions, that allowed to break the seasonality that had prevailed decades ago. For this reason, the City Council has among its priorities promoting, planning and implementing structural actions to support this type of economy.

In this regard, the City Hall is implementing several actions, some properly oriented to tourism and other that do benefit tourism itself. On the first point, in recent years we have implemented actions such as the moratorium on the licensing to tourist apartments, minimarkets and other businesses that do not fit into the image that Sitges needs.; the regeneration of beaches (both bringing sand every summer as the stabilizer project in which we are working with the Ministry); promoting festivals to provide activities throughout the year (some organized directly with municipal participation, such as the brand new Gardens of Terramar, Sitges Next for advertising, or the Jazz and also Cinema, which this year celebrates its fiftieth edition); or the design and implementation of actions that have a direct impact on tourism (promotion campaign Sitges Viu ·Sitges Lives·, Salt Road, wine tourism ...).

For its part, the actions carried out by the municipal government that have a direct impact on tourism is the project of the  Usage Plan, to finish in the coming months; actions to reduce illegal street vendors; premier cultural actions such as holding the exhibition Ramon Casas- that contribute to position Sitges as a cultural reference point and the new Architectural Heritage Plan, which aims to protect buildings that mark our uniqueness and identity.

Much remains to be done, but we are moving in the right direction, according to reports and evaluations prepared by experts who point that Sitges maintains its leading brand in the whole country. Employment data, organizations of events and initiatives that reach Sitges have multiplied in recent years and illustrate our potential and attraction we have in this moment. However, Sitges needs to be constantly in motion, generate new initiatives and act as a laboratory of ideas and proposals that mark tourism in the XXI century. And the brand new Council of Tourism is an excellent tool for making this possible.

Closing of the exhibition Ramon Casas in Sitges

Speech on the occasion of the presentation of the facsimile edition of Desde El Molino and the closing of the exhibition Ramon Casas, modernity desired, we organized Maricel Museum from 16 November 2016 and 19 February 2017.

From El Molí gather different chronicles from Paris that Rusiñol wrote for La Vanguardia to explain the vital experiences of artists at Montmartre, leaving no details for the imagination. No matter if it's just a portrait of Catalan artist that used to visit the Moulin de la Galette, as the shadows plays at Cabaret Chat Noir, or night like at Montmartre, tavern songs or the can-can dance. One of such chronicles, written and drawn in first person, today would be call self-fiction. They are, as explained in the presentation text, the self-biography of the bohemian life of Santiago Rusiñol and Ramon Casas.

Rusiñol describes his experiences in Paris with a style that describes the work of both friends, in a direct, real and we could say sentimental. Ramon Casas illustrated with a drawing pulse and will that approaches photojounalism, a very swift and expressive style. Written between 1890 and 1892, corresponding to the years that culminate the aesthetic complicity of both artists.

Between 1890 and 1892, something important happens also in the life of Rusiñol and also for us, because he and Casas in Paris are making incursions in Barcelona to present their new pictures both at exhibition halls and all sorts of cultural happenings. This was the reason why Casas came to paint in Sitges during the fall of 1891, he was curious about the patis that Casas commented to him, and at the same time he was going to Vilanova to watch the Greco at the Museum of Victor Balaguer.

This is why From the Mill also has references to Sitges. Specifically, in the tenth chapter, entitled "Impressions of an arrival", one arrival after discovering our town, Because Rusiñol writes that "when (....? you leave those beaches in Sitges (...) when you leave that eternal sweetness in the ambiance with not fakeness whatsoever and you have breathed and inspired it, when you leave a land that apart from being our land, it's also because it's good land (....) you can truly complain and use it as pretext to warm your spirits." And that January 1892 is now exactly 125 years in our past. Not a long while ago Rusiñol pronounced his first speech in Sitges, saying good bye to all those that received him so warmly:

" " My friend, I was a man that was walking around the world, following trails and jumping streams and dales when I met a land that was more sunny than the rest, were the sky was bluer, the sea was bluer and also the houses were white and with no snow and everything was green and blossoming, and I decided to stop. (...) But I will say aloud what my pictures won't say so everybody can hear me, and I will say with my breast full of enthusiasm. That France could have many millions, but they could never buy a land like this, were the wine is malaria, the coast is gold, the sky is light, women are fire and everything swims in an atmosphere of life and friendship.

Also during his first stay he wrote an article about the nostalgia of two homelands, in which deeply affected by the emigration of people from Sitges to America, he places yearning for you homeland in first person, already divided between the attraction to sun and the light of Sitges and the grey mist from Paris representing modernity that he still wants to assimilate, but that he will drop to build a house that will be also be an atelier and a museum in Sitges.

Meanwhile, we must take time to savor his Parisian chronicles, this grey Paris covered by fog but so attractive for the fight for art and freedom in which, as well as Rusiñol, both end wining, importing it as the legacy of modernity to the Catalonia of their times.

Budget: more social measures, greater economic revitalization and increased investment

A few weeks ago, the Municipal Council carried out the initial approval of the budget for City of Sitges 2017. It took only six votes against 21 of the full house, in a clear sign that shows that it was a mainstream document that shared a wide political consensus and the willingness to negotiate of government and almost all municipal groups that in one way or another, reached  agreements that have been reflected on the budget. In early March, the Full House must agree on the final approval of the budget that will come into force automatically.

The budget for 2017 is over 42 million € and involves an increase of 2% compared to last year. The items that recorded this increase were those of Social Welfare, Culture, Sports, Education and Public Roads. The increase in these items is designed to implement the planned action in the Mandate Plan, prepared by the two local groups that currently make up the government of the City (PDeCAT and DC, on one hand, and ERC on the other).

Among the actions contained in the budget are the beginning of long-awaited projects, such as the construction of school Agnès de Sitges, which is possible thanks to an agreement between the City Council and the Catalan Government, which specifies that the new building will be built between the 2017 and 2019. The budget also includes other important investments, such as a new rugby field, which will give a definitive answer to the situation of temporary facilities that characterized this sport in Sitges since its inception 25 years ago. Also, there are other important activities, such as the necessary reform of the different sections of the Promenade, the reform of the Town Hall, improvements in the field of Aiguadolç municipal football field, the new civic center of Les Botigues or improving access to Garraf, among other projects aimed at improving infrastructure facilities and the map of the town.

The budget also includes a social action plan aimed at preventive actions on the most disadvantaged groups, but also to intervene in situations of greatest need. These are actions that are part of our program silos people, which last year brought 600,000 extra enabling social services. This year, we increased investments and the number of professionals working in this field. Objective: people.

Meanwhile, the budget foresees an increase in investments in public roads, perfectly aware of the problem we have in this area, especially during the summer months. Last year, we increased items for cleaning services almost half a million Euros, this year we envisaged a special endowment for gardening services to improve green areas of the municipality.

There is very relevant budget item in 2017: municipal spending per inhabitant in Sitges amounted to 1419.53 Euros, well above the national average in the municipalities having between 25,000 and 30,000 inhabitants which are 1098.32 Euros. The investment per inhabitant in Sitges amounts to 86.21 Euros, while the national average is 61.20 Euros.

And all this increase in budgetary resources does not increase debt, just the opposite. In 2017 we will reduce the debt of the City Hall placing it significantly below the national average, despite the difficult scenario of municipal finances in 2011 when debt level was excessive.

It is a good budget and to make it really effective, the challenge we have now is to improve processes and municipal management. If we succeed, we would have been able to reverse in a few years a very severe situation to a moderately favorable one.

2017: the year of cultural facilities

Authorities, creators, cultural managers, scholars, representatives of associations and groups, ladies and gentlemen, good evening everyone.

First of all, let me congratulate the winners of the various awards, recognitions and prizes received. The faces of satisfaction clearly expose your joy, absolutely justified:

• To journalist Joan Sella, for his documented and tasty reports that he publishes regularly at L'Eco.
• To painter Carles Castellvi and sculptor Jordi Gich for the magic show of his works,  exhibited in Miramar along with other selected pieces from Sanvisens and Pere Jou competitions.
• To Natalia Carmona for his willingness to research and study.
• To Francesc Barnés, posthumously, for his kindness, service capacity and intuitive and privileged view through the eye of the camera.
• To the photography section of the Grup d'Estudis (Study Group) for the enthusiastic efforts to spread the value of the photographic image to the public.
• And to the musician Ramon Mirabet for taking the name of Sitges everywhere he goes, accompanied by a career that achieves a success after the other.

To all: congratulations!

I would also like to thank the people who made these awards possible. To all the people that make up institutions, associations and other groups of different sign that among their purposes is the noble and necessary task to recognize good work, talent and careers. Congratulations, because you are a driving engine. And the driving engine is an essential part of any dynamic operation: from a vehicle to a collective organization or community. No project works without a driving force. It is not possible to start up. Congratulations and thanks you for your work.

Note that I referred to two of the major pillars of the basic structure of a cultural system: creators and organizers or promoters of political and cultural action. The first (the creators) are the talent and the basis of any cultural event. They make art. Either with a brush, a keyboard, a guitar, a camera or their hands. Art as a form of expression, knowledge or evasion.

But if alongside creators or behind them there were no agents promoting the pipeline, dissemination or funding, no matter how limited, art, creation would be doomed. Associations, institutions, foundations or other groups increase the dimension and body size of culture and are as essential as are the creators themselves.

Santiago Rusiñol arrived in Sitges and transformed the town in one of the most important stages and showcases of the arts in the late nineteenth century. But if Rusiñol had not found an active society in movement, he could hardly have articulated his Temple of Modernism and transform Sitges into a cultural capital. The town of Sitges found by Rusiñol was a very active town. El Retiro and El Prado were just born, and more recently, L'Eco de Sitges.

And while talking about Santiago Rusiñol and L'Eco, let me add a few words in memory of two sitgetans with a long, strong and noble trajectory who have died in recent days: Genis Muntané and Josep Manuel Soler, "en Josep de L'Eco. Genis and Josep represented throughout their life this Sitges that today we are recognizing and rewarding. They were an example of dedication, service and "sitgetanisme."

Creators and associations are the two pillars that sustain culture. And the third are facilities. The expression of culture needs platforms and scenarios to channel their journey, and those platforms must be at the service of creators and dinamizers. And this is one of the challenges of the roadmap of our  Municipal Government regarding cultural facilities.

In this regard, I wish to emphasize that 2017 will be the year of cultural facilities in Sitges. Our culture went through dire straits due to the crisis and budget cuts, but the new environment will generate renewed optimism. Recent years brough about sacrifices, probably in some cases quite excessive, but the good economic management and institutional understanding now allow us to promote projects and facilities are of paramount importance.

• A few days ago, the Councillor for Culture, Traditions and Celebrations, Rosa Tubau, agreed with the President of El Retiro, Elena Farré, the use of the facility that the City-Hall has in this building for cultural uses. It is a hall that the City-Hall acquired at the end of the 90 but has not had a specific use since. Now the aim is to put this space at the service of cultural institutions and thus respond to a demand that we have received from several associations.

• Just two weeks ago, I announced accompanied by the Deputy Chairman of the Provincial Council of Barcelona, Jaume Ciurana, the transfer of the Miramar building and its annexes to the City-Hall of Sitges for 20 years, renewable for 30 years; ie up to 50 years of assignment. El Miramar is owned by the Provincial Council of Barcelona and now, thanks to this agreement, will continue under municipal management, with the commitment to extend its use as a cultural space. 

• During the summer of 2017 will open the Romantic Museum - Can Llopis - once again, once they have completed the work of reform, adaptation and internal reorganization of collections.

• Also in 2017, we will be about to finish the work of refurbishment of Can Falç. Last spring ended the adaptation of part of ground floor. In 2018 Can Falç is expected to open as a new museum and a center for cultural heritage.

• And more museums. Because this is the condition that will have the Stämpfli Foundation, once finished the work of expansion of the facilities that the Stämpflis are carrying out a new act of infinite generosity to Sitges and art. With the extension that they will make at the street d'en Bosc, The Foundation will have more than 1,300 square meters dedicated to contemporary art. With Can Falç and extended Stämpfli Foundation, Sitges will have five museums.

• During 2017, the refurbishment works of Palau Maricel are planned to start. We have already received a grant from the Provincial Government of Barcelona. The reform will be a structural reform and will increase the levels of protection and conservation of one of the most emblematic buildings in Sitges.

• As previously stated by Councillor Rosa Tubau, during 2017 we will open the Library Santiago Rusiñol, once reformed and refurbished; we will finish the much expected roof works of the theater hall of the Casino Prado and we will continue the struggle to acquire the building of the former Patronato at Parellades street.

• Heritage conservation will also be the basis a project of recuperation that today we will anounce here, the chapel and the masia (Catalan rural house) of Santa Barbara, also scheduled for action in 2017. We want to allocate the chapel and the house for public use.

The municipal facility at El Retiro, Miramar, museums, the library, Can Falç, the chapel of Santa Barbara ... As you can see, next year comes loaded with remarkable projects to draw a map of cultural facilities with more consistency and more protection. Most of these areas have a precious heritage value for us, their conservation and protection are a priority. But also their access and adaptation to the cultural needs of Sitges today.

Two weeks ago, the president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, inaugurated the central exhibition of the Year Ramon Casas. The fact that Sitges organizes, promotes and exports an event of this type, which next year will travel Madrid and Palma de Majorca,is the recognition of the strong commitment of Sitges as cultural capital.

The exhibition Ramon Casas puts us in the center of the cultural universe of Catalonia, the same feat achieved by some of our festivals and other cultural events organized from Sitges that are national or even international. Right now, the Department of Culture is working on a new festival to expand our event map: Music Festival to celebrate the Gardens of Terramar next summer.

Great exhibitions, festivals and events that focus attention in Sitges and transform Sitges in stage, generator and projector of culture. But at the same time, our cultural system requires local culture and fostering local talent. And this is one of pillars in which works the Department of Culture, through its stable exhibition program, regular editions and activities of organizations of different format. But also accompanying organizations and artists in their projects to the maximum extent of our ability.

Culture is active and generates return when is bidirectional. That is, when all parties contribute with their effort. The City Hall -and all the organizations in which we participate, such as the Heritage Consortium and the Film Festival, among others, are there to promote large projects and tune facilities and renovation of buildings. And you, creators and associations, are here to promote your projects, which are also major projects for Sitges that we all feel as our own projects. Because a Sitges that would only live out of  major cultural events would be a lame Sitges, a boring Sitges. For this reason, your contribution is not only useful and necessary, but it is essential.

Culture is a pillar of the welfare state, as are education, health, housing and social services. And so, we must provide the content, funding, dialogue and two-way action. And 2017 is destined to be a particularly important year in which we will strenghten our map of cultural facilities. And, therefore, continue weaving our status as a cultural capital.

Thank you and good evening to everyone.