• The delegate of the Government of Spain in Madrid, Francisco Martín, has defended that Public Education is “the greatest social elevator” of democracy and that today it is threatened
• The event was organized, for the second time, by the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, through the Delegation of the Government of Spain in Madrid, in the Pious Schools of San Fernando, headquarters of the UNED.
• It is the second occasion on which this event is organized by the Government of Spain after the unilateral rupture by the Community of Madrid of the traditional co-organization of the institutional act.
• The event was chaired by Minister Ángel Víctor Torres and with a large number of civil and military authorities, as well as representatives of the social and business sector.
• Article 27 of the Spanish Constitution has been claimed, which enshrines the right of everyone to education as a fundamental right

The delegate of the Government of Spain in the Community of Madrid, Francisco Martín, has claimed today, in the act commemorating the 47th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution organized by the Delegation of the Government on behalf of the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, that the defense of the public university and public services “is to defend the Constitution”.

Held at Escuela Pías de San Fernando, headquarters of the UNED, “the public university that best represents constitutional values”, and focused on article 27 of the Spanish Constitution that enshrines the right of everyone to Education as a fundamental right, has been presided over by the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, who has pointed out that Democracy “is not perfect”, but it is the system that has allowed “the greatest advances in rights, levels of freedom and progress” in Spain, and has broken down barriers “that 50 years ago were a pipe dream”. For this reason, he has asked that no steps be taken backwards or that the higher values contained in the Magna Carta be allowed to be erased.

Along with him, the government delegate in the Community of Madrid, Francisco Martín, and an important representation of the political and institutional sphere, of the Security Corps and Forces and of the military sphere. Among them, the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Eva Granados Galiano; the Director General of the General Administration of the State in the Territory, Agustín Torres Herrero; the Second Secretary of the Congress of Deputies, Isaura Leal; the Director General of Attention to the Victims of Terrorism, Monserrat Torija; the Commissioner for the Celebration of the 50 Years of Freedom, Carmina Gustrán; members of the Madrid Assembly as their second guard, Esther Rodríguez Moreno

In his speech, Francisco Martín pointed out that “Public Education is the greatest social elevator we have had in our democratic history” and wanted to make an express recognition to those who made true freedoms possible.

However, he has warned that, “the public university, and particularly Madrid’s, is today facing real threats, such as suffocating underfunding or the accelerated creation of pseudo-private universities of dubious quality. These threats are direct attacks on the constitutional model that protects academic freedom, equal opportunities and the independence of university thought.”

Faced with this, he stressed, the Government of Spain “has been, is and will be committed to the public university” as a democratic guarantee, freedom and to avoid making higher education “a market and not a right”.

Memory

This anniversary is also part of the commemoration of Spain’s 50th anniversary in Libertad, a celebration that recalls that Spain lived a time in which freedom, coexistence and rights “were not realities, but aspirations”. “Refusing to recognize our history is a disloyalty to the truth, to the Constitution and to the people who fought so that today we can vote, speak and meet without fear,” he said.

Right to housing

Francisco Martín also mentioned the problem of access to housing, a right that is also recognized in the Constitution, and regretted that, in Madrid, “it has become a luxury”.

In this regard, he has criticized that in the region there are, those who face this panorama have said “that they do not want to do anything. And they don’t want to let it happen either.”

Breakdown of the consensus

The government delegate recalled that the Constitution “was born from the agreement, from the dialogue, from the recognition of the plurality of Spain” and regretted that some consensuses “that were untouchable for decades are being broken from a very concrete side of the board”.

“Examples of this are the statements of those political leaders who declare themselves subservient to compliance with the law or who do not respect the constitutional bodies.” Referring also to the attempt to silence the Government of Spain in the act of celebration of the Constitution of the Puerta del Sol.

This is why the Government Delegation, for the second year in a row, has organized an event of its own, proof that “loyalty and institutional respect are constantly under threat. It is not a mere formalism, it is the foundation on which trust between administrations is built. It is the principle that allows us to work in the general interest.”

In his opinion, the commemoration of the Constitution is the time to remember “everything that unites us, to reflect on our commitment as a society to constitutional principles and to reaffirm the respect that we all owe to the institutions that make our democracy possible.”

And he wanted this 47th anniversary to serve to renew the commitment to continue moving forward to achieve a Spain where each generation lives with more freedom, more equality and more dignity than the previous one.”

Speakers

In the act they have also taken the word: Elena Maculan, general secretary of the UNED, underlining the role of the public university “essential pillar” for the exercise of the constitutional right to Education and as “gateway to a world of opportunities”; Lucaban Llobell Vadillo, spokesperson of the Student Council of the Autonomous University of Madrid, who has claimed her contribution to the construction of a “freer and fairer” society; Irene Valenzuela Agüí, researcher ATRAE, who has called for the defense of an “enviable public system” of which to feel “proud” and which would be tragic.

In addition, throughout the event, the artist NSN997 has been elaborating a recreation of the collective murals for the 50 years in Libertad that on November 29 were carried out in 30 municipalities of Madrid, whose result could see finished all and all the attendees.