On Tuesday 19th, at the launch of the book 'El arte de emprender', by Peru’s former vice-president, Raúl Díez Canseco Aznar: "We must tirelessly help and encourage this immense task of national recovery"

19/03/2013

    _ “We should be encouraged by the greatness demonstrated by the Spanish society when it has been required to make a common and fair effort at critical junctures”

    _ “We want to become stronger in the reality of a society model based on freedom and solidarity”

    _ “We live in an exaltation of irresponsibility consisting of trivializing the important and attributing an undeserved importance to the banal”

    _ “Entrepreneurship is another virtue of politics, and we now need it more than ever”

    _ “The willingness to enterprise must be coupled with an institutional framework that encourages the establishment of companies”

    _ “Middle classes should feel their importance, they should know that their efforts and sacrifices are recognized”

José María Aznar, former Prime Minister of Spain and president of FAES Foundation we must tirelessly help and encourage this immense task of national recovery". "We should all be encouraged by the greatness demonstrated by the Spanish society when it has been required to make a common, fair and solidary effort at critical junctures," he said.

During the launch in Madrid of the book El arte de emprender, written by Peru"s former vice-president Ra?l Diez Canseco, Aznar assured that "the willingness to enterprise must be coupled with an institutional framework that encourages the establishment of companies." "Entrepreneurship is thus a public virtue, not only private. A virtue needed by societies, and therefore one which must be boosted," he said.

Aznar believes that “what makes companies possible as well as the economic and social development is an adequate fiscal framework, a simple and clear trade regulation, and an environment conducive to innovation and initiative. But all this is just a part of the institutional environment, of the political and civic culture that encourages the overall progress of a country, or that, on the contrary, hinders it.”

In this sense, Aznar said that “today we can’t ignore that some of those conditions which enable the progress of countries is becoming weaker.” “We live in a frequent exaltation of irresponsibility in which we tend to trivialize what is important and attribute an undeserved importance to what is banal,” he said.

THE LOGIC OF DEMOCRACY
Aznar stated in his address that “if we apply the simple logic of democracy, considered as provocative by some but extremely reassuring by the vast majority, we will find some issues that hamper our country’s progress because they affect the institutional environment and the institutions performance.”

In this sense, Aznar declared that “it is not acceptable that those who openly declare a will to destroy the nation and who insist on promoting secessionist processes, use as a platform for their claims, the same institutions whose legitimacy they deny.” “It is not acceptable to require from the government and in the name of peace that murderers are set free without paying for their crimes or even regretting them,” he also said.

Furthermore, he said that “it is not acceptable that politicians are not able to exercise their task of representing and directing freely and without pressure. And it is also unacceptable that there are those who claim to be doing politics but they do so without honesty or transparency.” According to Aznar, “it is unwholesome for democracy that these people try to make a show out of the work of the Rule of Law, a show which is the exact opposite of the exemplarity that goes hand in hand with Justice. As is also detrimental to democratic health to expand a general suspicion about everything and everyone, severely damaging the bond of loyalty between institutions and citizens.”

Likewise, Aznar referred to the middle class saying that “they must feel their importance, they must know that their efforts and sacrifices are recognized and that they are going to open a horizon where the strengthening of the middle class will be an absolutely central political commitment that I wholeheartedly support.”

INSTITUTIONAL REACTION
In Aznar’s words, “since all of this has to improve, it is necessary to react against it. And that duty corresponds to each and every one of us.” “The institutions, because they have an irreproachable political mandate for it, must be the first ones to do it. In order to recover growth and employment, and to restore exemplarity too, the transparency and the regulatory value of the Constitution and the laws, the loss of which are the ultimate origin of our crisis,” he pointed out.

With regards to this matter, Aznar said that “we want to establish ourselves in reality, not in the dreams of radical nationalism, or the harangues of populism, or the street nostalgia of the impossible revolutionaries.” “We want to establish ourselves in the reality of a society model based on freedom and solidarity, in the reality of a nation that shares ambitions, projects and also efforts, and that wants to keep being the main character of its historic continuity,” he added.

According to Aznar, “explaining this, and acting in consequence, is the first task of the rulers, and it is not an easy one. We have to help and encourage tirelessly the huge task of national recovery that they have to confront with decision and confidence. And all of this in the midst of an unprecedented political and economic crisis.”

The former president of the government considered that “we should all be encouraged by the greatness demonstrated by the Spanish society when it has been required to make a common, fair and solidary effort at critical junctures.” “Because entrepreneurship is also a political virtue, a virtue which we now need more than ever to confront one of the most important moments of our history” he stated.

EFFICIENCY AND COMMITMENT
In his address, Aznar has also referred to the figure of Díez Canseco, of whose political career he stressed his “spirit of unity, vision and sense of state” and “the efficiency and commitment to his country” with which he served as vice-president of Peru. And he added that “in business matters, Díez Canseco is characterized by carrying out projects that have always valued juvenile work, entrepreneurship and innovation.”