El buit del temps

Empty political rhetoric is one thing, but the soberness of perfect governance is quite another. In Valencia we know this only too well because the former abounds while the latter is rare. We have got used to politicians’ grandiloquent words and gestures, to firework displays –spectacular but short-lived. Now, however, the crisis has brought down a shower of burnt out cinders, leaving the disgrace and fragility of the system hanging in the air, and we realize that it was all just a mirage. Six years ago the regional government boasted the opening of a new research institute, the Prince Felipe Research Centre (CIFP). Pompous in name and born with a silver spoon –heir to a spectacular budget compared with other comparable research centres- it brought the promise of a scientific network at the forefront of biomedical research. It seemed set to mimic other successful scientific ventures, like those biomedical research centres in Barcelona. But right from the outset there were notable differences, starting with its location, far away from the university campuses and hospitals. According to direct witnesses, right from the beginning, a gunpowder plot was afoot. Six years later, without having been consolidated, comes the time of reckoning: its demolition.

A few weeks ago President Fabra boasted of his support for scientific research to past winners of the Jaume I awards. Shortly after he awarded this year’s Jaume I prize at the medieval trade exchange building, Llotja dels Mercaders de València, Juan Roig, a businessman and founder of the Mercadona supermarket chain, spoke on behalf of the winners. Roig proclaimed hard work ethics to be the key to overcoming the crisis. Just a few steps away, listening to this speech, was the winner of the award for clinical research, Prof. Carlos Simón, scientific director of the CIPF, now resigned. Almost simultaneously, the Human Resources department at the CIPF was sending out an email announcing the official start of the downsizing plan at the centre, due to the economic depression to which the regional government has condemned it, however much they would like to cast the blame on Zapatero’s government. The centre has been cut back to 12 research fields, in some cases leading to an insurmountable predicament, affecting 108 workers and sweeping before it the effort and enthusiasm of six PhD candidates whose dissertations remain unfinished.  Twenty-four hours later, Rubén Moreno informed the CIPF that he was giving up the post of general director at the Centre to stand as a candidate for Spain’s conservative party, Partido Popular, in the Lower Chamber or “Congress of Deputies. The following day the press informed us that a golf tournament backed by the former president of the Castellón County Council, the other “Fabra”, was to receive three million euros from the Government’s meagre budget. Most ironic.

The result of what we have seen in just one week of the official discourse preaching excellence, internationalization, and the regional government’s efforts and support of research, is the reality that the President of the Valencian Government, the Valencian Health Minister and its flagship, Valencian biomedical research, are all left standing stark naked. The scientific director resigns, the director-general escapes –neither one empty handed–, the CIPF falls in the shadow of death and over a hundred workers are thrown into unemployment’s dark void, thanks to the far from satisfactory management of all those responsible (including the eternal courtly adviser, Santiago Grisolía). Left is the frustration of many dreams, of passion for science, and of much voluntarism. This is the sad reality of the great sham of Valencian politics, the showy politics of squandering our heritage in shady businesses that benefit only a few -and wantonly play with our future.

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The crisis of CIFP after Nature and Science.