18/10/2012
_ José María Aznar ha hecho estas declaraciones en Miami, en el homenaje al Bicentenario de la Constitución de Cádiz que organiza la Fundación España-Florida 500 años, de la cual es miembro honorario.
_ “If our fellow citizens succeeded in Cadiz in the face of more serious problems, the Spaniards of today, acting together, are also going to win the future”
_ He regretted the fact that many use the crisis “with great disloyalty to damage common interests or to hide their mistakes”
_ “If someone wants to amend a constitutional text, that person can propose it to the Nation as a whole, and the Nation will decide as it sees fit”
The former Prime Minister of Spain and president of FAES Foundation, José María Aznar, has stated that,“contrary to nationalisms, what the Spanish nation is claiming for is not an identity imposition, but the freedom and equality of its citizens”. Aznar made these statements in Miami, during the homage paid to the Bicentenary of the Constitution of Cadiz organised by the Spain-Florida Foundation 500 years, of which he is an Honorary Member.
During his address, Aznar declared that “now that some trivialise History and exacerbate sterile localisms, the time has come to remember true History. The same History that allows me to say that today I feel calmly proud to be Spanish”. Proud of belonging “to a Spanish nation bearing an identity but which isn’t an identitarian or nationalist nation; a plural, complex and including nation”, he stressed. And added that, “contrary to nationalisms, what the Spanish nation is claiming for is not an identity imposition, but the freedom and equality of its citizens”.
Aznar also stated that “I have no doubt whatsoever that if our fellow citizens succeeded in Cadiz in the face of infinitely more serious and terrible problems than the ones of the present times, the Spaniards of today, acting together once again to face our problems, are also going to win the future”. He said that this goal would be achieved “with a determined, renovating and reformist national policy, heir to the principles of Cadiz and founded on three pillars: the Nation, the Constitution and Freedom. The sovereignty of a Nation that doesn’t split up or surrender itself. A Constitution that joins us and makes us equal. And the freedom of citizens who wish an open and effective democracy”.
SERIOUS DISLOYALTY
In addition to this, Aznar stressed that “the current Spanish Constitution has provided continuity and stability to the Spanish nation’s political stability in modern and effective terms, terms which have fostered a time of huge progress and freedom in Spain”.
In this sense, Aznar reminded the audience that “the recent generations of Spanish people have profited from this, and we seek to continue profiting from this, in spite of the terrible difficulties, such as terrorism, we’ve had to face in recent years”. “And –he continued– in spite of the difficulties posed by the current economic crisis and which some are using with great disloyalty to damage common interests in benefit of their particular interests, or simply, to hide their mistakes with the old strategy of distracting citizens with an even bigger induced scandal”.
Aznar further added that “If someone wants to amend a constitutional text, that person can propose it to the Nation as a whole, and the Nation will decide as it sees fit. But what can’t be done is breaching the Constitution of their own accord, because that action will be void and null of all legality and could even receive the penal reproach envisaged by each country’s Codes”.
The former Prime Minister of Spain, who devoted part of his address to remember the initial phases of the 1812 Constitution and to uphold its legacy, also stated that “Spain is not just an ideal questioned and questionable abstraction”. “Spain is one of the oldest nations of the world”, the history of which, he said, “did not start with the 1812 Constitution, let alone with the 1978 one”.