"The conflict should not be eradicated, because the specificity of pluralist democracies resides precisely in the conflict, what democracy requires is that others are not seen as enemies that must try to destroy, but as adversaries, whose ideas will be fought, but who will never deny the right to defend them." This was said by Chantal Mouffe, a politician and philosopher, and one of the initiators of the post-Marxist current, was invited, who was the guest speaker at the annual legacy of the legacy Pasqual Maragall, organized annually by the Fundació Catalunya Europa with the support of the RBA Foundation in collaboration with the City Council of Barcelona and the Generalitat of Catalonia, and which was celebrated December 13 in the headquarters of the publishing house
Gemma Sendra, president of the Fundació Catalunya Europa, welcomed the event and emphasized the work carried out by the Foundation confronting the academic world with the social world and the political world. On the other hand, the professor of political science at Pompeu Fabra University, Ferran Requejo, introduced Chantal Mouffe and explained the importance of her thesis in the field of political theory. Requejo said that "Mouffe tells us what politics is and how we can think well. Western political tradition thinks politics from the rationalist point of view, but it is not realistic, the passions are there to stay ",added Requejo. According to UPF professor, Mouffe provides another important reflection point about what the policy should be.
The thesis of the philosopher and political scientist Chantal Mouffe revolves around agonistic theory. To understand this concept, dominant political theories of the present moment must be understood. For Mouffe, there is an increasing incapacity to conceive the problems that our society faces in political terms. This reality that she calls "post-politics" leads to a growing disaffection of democratic and liberal institutions, and this is manifested in a decline in electoral participation and, above all, with the attraction exercised by right-wing populist parties that challenge the establishment of politics.
In part, Mouffe attributes this misunderstanding to the analysis that is made of political reality from one of the current theoretical currents, the deliberative democracy, whose objective is the creation of a rational consensus through deliberative procedures In this theoretical framework, those who insist on the importance of the conflict, says Mouffe, are accused of calling into question the very idea of democracy. For the politician this rationalist perception leads to the current displacement of politics in the legal field, considered the right ground for achieving "impartial" decisions. This perspective, in addition, does not easily understand the formation of collective identities and the crucial role of the affective dimension in the collective forms of identification. The denial of the importance of affections leads to impotence and current incapacity to capture the nature and causes of the new phenomenon of right-wing populism that emerges strongly in Europe.
A rationalist perception leads to the current displacement of politics in the legal field