The government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, today called for the shared responsibility of citizens and institutions to defend the “many rights achieved” after the approval of the Spanish Constitution while noting that “they are neither immutable nor sufficient”. The delegate highlighted these ideas in the closing speech of the institutional act commemorating the 47th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution, which was held today at the National Museum of Science and Technology-Muncyt in A Coruña. And he warned that “the facts, the current circumstances tell us that we cannot relax, that we cannot be trusted. Nothing is guaranteed, there are always those who are interested in going backwards, in going backwards”.
In his speech, the delegate highlighted the extraordinary change that propelled the Constitution and that was made possible 50 years ago by the civic commitment of the men and women who guided the Transition. Rights such as voting, civil marriage, universal education, effective equality between men and women... which the delegate described as “not immutable”, and require adding new rights in parallel with the evolution of society.
“I am part of a government that is not satisfied with the one reached, that listens and responds to the demands, that works to ensure the rights achieved and to support new rights,” said Pedro Blanco. And, in this line, he recalled that the Government works to “respond to a society that pushes us forward, formed by people who shake us to continue progressing.”
Constitutional pedagogy
The delegate pointed out the need to do “constitutional pedagogy” with young people, since it is they who have the duty and responsibility to continue making a country in democracy and rights, “building a Spain in their image and likeness without anyone imposing it”. “If young people don’t know what dictatorship is, they can’t despise it, they can’t value democracy and the rights they enjoy now. If young people and girls do not know our Transition stage, they cannot appreciate everyone’s effort for harmony, agreement, consensus, to lay the foundations of this Spain that we enjoy today,” he concluded.
Witnesses to 50 years of the arrival of democracy
During the event, four people took the floor to explain their experience on the rights and freedoms that were achieved with the Spanish Constitution and that were consolidated in these fifty years of democracy as well as the advances they promoted in Galician and Spanish society. In their speeches, they agreed on the need to publicize these rights and freedoms in order to strengthen them and consolidate democracy and, with it, the social and economic advances that Galicia and Spain recorded after five decades.
Each of them addressed issues such as public education, the construction of the Galician Autonomy and entry into the EU, the rights and duty of youth and advances in the rights of LGTBI people. The participants in this celebration were: Elena Vázquez Cendón, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Santiago de Compostela and member of the Galician Culture Council; Domingo González, journalist and writer, responsible for RTVE in Galicia and author of the book The news radio in Spain, from censorship to freedom; Carla Olmedo, student of the Law Degree at the USC, and Guillermina Domínguez, retired history teacher, promoter of a feminist vision of historical studies and referent of the LGTBI collective in Galicia being the first woman to marry another woman civilly 20 years ago.
50 years of Spain in Libertad
The anniversary of the Spanish Constitution is framed in the celebrations of the “50 years of Spain in Freedom”, which is carried out under the impetus of the Government Delegation in Galicia and the Commissioner for the Celebration of the 50 years of Spain in freedom. The event was attended by the sub-delegates of the Government in A Coruña, Ourense and Pontevedra and the sub-delegate of the Government in Lugo, as well as those responsible for the Security Bodies and Forces, Armed Forces, Judicature, cultural and trade union institutions and public bodies, Deputations and Town Halls.