Madrid (EFE).- The Greek-Swedish writer Theodor Kallifatides, considered one of the great exponents of European letters, believes that the world is currently experiencing perhaps its most critical period, a situation in which populism is easy, since that the extreme parties have simple and radical solutions for everything.
Kallifatides, born in Greece in 1938 although he emigrated to Sweden in 1964, is in Madrid this Friday to collect the Gold Medal of the Círculo de Bellas Artes, the highest distinction granted by this institution, which highlights its “transnational conception of culture and pays homage to a literary career marked by exile and enriched by hybridization”.
The author, who has published more than forty books of fiction, essays and poetry translated into several languages, highlighted in a meeting with journalists how xenophobia has increased throughout Europe due to the fact that in many countries there are extreme political parties.
“I don’t know why extreme parties are growing, but the difficulties that people now have are great and they cannot face them”, to which there are parties “that have all the solutions” and “it is very human to react like this”. , considers.
He has recalled the solutions offered by these parties with an anecdote that he lived as a child before the Second World War: at a rally, a candidate said that he would give the citizens everything they wanted and promised them a bridge. Reminding him that they did not have a river in the town and therefore did not need that infrastructure, the politician assured them that he would also build a river.
Putin is “an accident”
The writer has been concerned about the climate crisis, violence against women, the growth of poverty and also the increase in extreme wealth: “How is this world going to survive?”, he asked himself, to answer that we need more thought than soul.
He believes that freedom and justice are the engines of life, but they cannot exist separately, since “freedom without justice is a nightmare.”
In addition, he assures, “if you have grandchildren, you have to be optimistic: there is no other option.”
For Kallifatides, today’s populism is similar to that of the 1930s and he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “an accident.”
The author Kallifatides speaks several languages, including a Spanish that he only learned a couple of years ago by reading stories, which allows him to read Cervantes, a difficult but very pleasant reading, says this writer who has ended up assuring that he cannot live without the literature because writing is his life