Tuña, Council of Tineo (Asturias)
During her speech at the event, the vice-president declared that "the Democratic Memory, that of freedoms, which has led our country to have a consolidated democracy and a constitutional order that nobody breaches or can break, is part of the state agenda, of the public policy of a country that looks at itself with dignity and courage."
"General Del Riego fought for something that our country has struggled to achieve: more than 40 years of democracy and compliance with our constitutional pact is the great tribute that we can offer him today. Let him know that we have achieved it by recognizing those who were there before and gave the effort and, in his case, life; that it was not in vain and that we will continue to remember it", continued the Vice-President.
Carmen Calvo also echoed the words of the President of the Second Republic, Manuel Azaña, when he said that "we must revitalize, remember and keep in mind for the continuous work of taking forward our great country, that long list of men and women who fought throughout history for the best of our country: freedoms, modernization, the opening of our borders to the world, to the ideological, political, scientific and cultural currents that make it great."
The First Vice-President of the Government has highlighted that "today we also remember the unfair sacrifice of 13 women, of the 13 Roses, who fought for the same thing: because their ideas, in front of different ideas, were possible within the framework of the coexistence of our country, and this is the best idea of Spain, there is no other. That is also the message of the future that we can launch today from Tuña, from Tineo and from Asturias."
Calvo also stressed that "this Constitution that we now enjoy and this great democracy that we now belong to was not made against anyone, it was not a Constitution of any party or any ideology; it has been a Constitution that has built bridges and has stopped digging trenches among Spaniards."
"The youngest generations of our country must know that it has taken a lot of effort to stabilize it in a coexistence that has to be plural and respectful, and that is only achieved by complying with the rules and strengthening them in their daily compliance, and transforming them exclusively by the procedures foreseen and never by others. There are many who do not want to understand it but for that reason the institutions of this country will be fulfilling their functions and against what the General of Irrigation denounced, fought and ended up defending with his own life," continued the vice-president.
“Let’s defend our democracy by practicing it, let’s defend our constitutional text by complying with it, all equally and each in the responsibility that has corresponded to it,” he concluded.
The tribute was also given by Adrián Barbón, President of the Principality of Asturias, José Ramón Feito, Mayor of Tineo and Francisco José Roja, Mayor of Las Cabezas de San Juan.
The act ended with a floral offering to the bust of the general in the square to which General Watering gives his name in his birthplace and the interpretation of the anthem that was adopted after the uprising. Finally, the authorities have visited the birthplace of the General of Irrigation, a few meters from the place where the tribute took place.
Prior to the event, the vice-president held a meeting with the Asturian president at the headquarters of the Government of the Principality and had the opportunity to visit the exhibition "Exile and Memory", by Orlando Pelayo, at the Museum of Fine Arts of Asturias.