Inaugural speech by President of the Government at World Congress of Rural Women

Ciudad Real

Members of the board, dear friends,

It is a pleasure and an honour, as on other occasions, to take part in an activity organised by AFAMMER; on this occasion, the 1st International Congress, as were reminded by Carmen Quintanilla in her speech, on the Voice of Rural Women in the World, being held here for the first time in 2015, the year in which we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Declaration and the Platform for Action of the 4th International Conference on Women.

All of the speakers have made very important remarks. I agree with them all, without exception, but wanted to point out that it is important to highlight that five of us have spoken here: three women and two men: the Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and myself. This is important because it means that steps are being taken in the right direction; it means that talent, work and ability are being acknowledged, and it means that, moreover, this is being done by Spanish society, because none of the people that have taken part here have done so for any other reason than because citizens have wanted to: Rosa Romero is not the Mayor of Ciudad Real by chance, she is the mayor because she has been elected to be so by the people of Ciudad Real; and neither is María Dolores; she is the President of the Regional Government of Castile-La Mancha because she was voted in by a majority of the citizens of the five provinces that make up the region; and the same is true for Carmen Quintanilla; she has been elected president by rural women and she has been elected as an MP by the population of Ciudad Real as a whole.

As in so many walks of life, there is still a lot to do, but steps are fortunately being taken in the right direction, at least in our country, and let's hope that in certain other countries in the near future.

Dear friends,

I would like to start by thanking AFAMMER for its organisation of this congress. This is important. This generates the right environment, this reaches people, this raises awareness and hence it is important to hold this type of event, and to do so here, in Spain, with the presence of the Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations.

My thanks thus go out to Carmen, but, as well as thanking her for organising this congress, I want to thank her for her tireless efforts in defence of women and to foster equal opportunities for such a long time now.

She has been a pioneer, because for more than three decades she has seen the importance and need for visibility of women who live in rural areas, the importance of listening to them, and now their voices are heard at national and international forums as a necessary step for reaching the challenge of full equality. That is why you founded AFAMMER, an organisation which, through your drive, your dedication, your work, your efforts, your commitment and with the help provided by so many people in a cause that is just and because you have found a way to win them over, you have conveyed to society the concerns and challenges facing women from both our country and abroad.

So thank you very much for your presence here today, and, above all, for putting in so many years to defending equality and women's rights. Thank you.

I also want to join in the welcome you have given to the representatives from other countries, organisations, international bodies, such as the United Nations Population Fund, and so many people who have travelled from overseas to accompany us here today. Their presence is a source of pride for us and provides us with the fuel, if you will allow me to use the expression, to continue working even harder in the future. Thank you very much and welcome to Spain once again.

As Carmen Quintanilla has done in her speech, I also want to express my thanks to Spanish companies. It is important for Spanish companies to exist and it is important that they generate a large number of jobs, and that they also provide well-being and wealth, that they make a profit, as you would expect, and that they pay their taxes, and it is also good for our citizens as a whole; but it is also very important that they are involved in activities such as this event that has gathered us all here today because it demonstrates their social commitment.

In this regard, I also wish to express my gratitude on behalf of all those present here. I believe that this is important, and I also want to say to you that the government I head up is part of this social commitment under the firm conviction that women, just like men, play a very important role and that the genuine equality, not just legal equality, is necessary, as we have already seen in the roles played for a long time now by women in our country. It is necessary because it is an act of justice, of logic, of common sense and sensibility; but, above all, it is necessary because we must all contribute, to the fullest extent of our possibilities, of our talent and of our abilities, to generating greater progress and well-being in our country which, at the end of the day, is the issue at hand. So, I would thank all the sponsors of these workshops as well.

Dear friends,

At a time in which the new post-2015 development agenda is being designed at a global level, more than 500 women from various countries around the globe and from many regions are gathered here - to deal with issues that are important in their own right, and which have been spoken about here this morning - to talk about equal opportunities and treatment in both the rural environment and beyond the rural environment, to talk about the role played by female employment in economic diversification and sustainable development, and to speak about, among other things, violence against women and children.

As regards this last issue, I would like to express here my outright condemnation of the violence suffered by women all around the world for the sole and exclusive fact of being women, and I wish to reiterate our firm and unwavering commitment to its eradication. For us, for Spain, this is a priority and a matter of State. And I wish for my support and the following message to reach those women who may be suffering from abuse: "there is a way out and you are not alone".

Dear friends,

I don't want my speech to go on too long because, as I said at the beginning, many things have been said that are very important and I am in agreement with them all. But I would like to just say two or three things taking advantage of the occasion offered by the inauguration of this event on equal opportunities and on the need for us all to contribute, as I have just remarked, to the extent that we can do so and taking into account our abilities, our efforts and what we can contribute, to improving the well-being and wealth of our country.

Respecting equal opportunities is, in the first place, an issue of simple justice, as everyone knows, but it is also undeniable that men and women are, despite their differences, equally valuable and necessary for building a better future.

20% of the population cannot make a country, nor can 30%, 40%, 50% or 60%, but rather 100% of the people that live there; men and women; people who are in government or people who are working in a hospital, a school, in the countryside, on a farm or at a rural savings bank, to give you tangible examples. To achieve that it is absolutely essential to guarantee equal opportunities and then anyone can do what they deem fit and appropriate, what they fancy or what they need, but it is an absolute priority and essential to have equal opportunities.

I believe that what we are fundamentally facing is not a problem of legislation, as I said at the start of my speech, but rather a change of mentality. We must take steps, as a country, with a more balanced perspective, that is more varied and richer.

In this regard, the role played by women that live in the rural environment is essential - six million women in Spain. You contribute to the social and economic life of our countryside, because you care for the countryside, you care for our surroundings, you care for our people and you help our farms and family businesses to flourish, and you keep our villages alive.

There are many places in the world, as we have been reminded of here - in reality, every country in the world... Not long ago, in New York, from 9 to 17 March, the conclusion was reached that equality has not been fully attained in any country in the world.

Hence, this is the challenge facing us in the future and these are some of the main priorities of this government. It is a priority to develop all the conditions necessary that allow as much talent as possible to be harnessed so that both men and women can contribute their knowledge and experience to thus place Spain, once again, among the leading economies on the international stage.

I would also like to mention something that María Dolores commented on in her speech: our rural environment is not only the cornerstone of our farming life, which is very important, but it is also a source of environmental resources that help boost other activities such as leisure, tourism, culture and agri-industrial transformation.

The countryside in Spain, and throughout the rural world, has a future. It has a great future. Sometimes, people, through a lack of knowledge or a lack of interest in learning, say that "Spain is a country where the most important sectors are tourism and construction". Just look at the construction industry now! Tourism and construction are both important, but Spain, when it exports goods overseas, what it most exports are capital goods, which neither correspond to the tourism or the construction sector, and then, closely run for second place in terms of our exports, and which are a good source of our future well-being and wealth, the automobile sector - we export cars - the chemical products sector - we export chemical products - and the agri-food sector, which has had tremendous significance in Spain over the last few years and which in some months comes in second place in terms of its contribution to Spanish exports. And it was this foreign trade sector that started to help us to exit the crisis our country faced.

As well as all these products, we have tourism, we have our culture and the rural world has a future, despite what some might say. Maybe our large cities, where so many people already live, have less of a future. But rest assured that the rural world has a future in our country and, of course, this government, at least while I head it up, will do everything in its hands so that these opportunities opening up here can be converted into tangible results for everyone.

Another comment I would like to make in this speech. The aim since we came to power, the most important objective... There are many, as in any other walk of life, but the most important was to create jobs. Employment is synonymous with independence, liberty and equal opportunities. Whoever has a job can live, carry out their life project and be happy. Whoever has a job makes National Insurance contributions which helps guarantee pensions, and if many people are contributing, this helps and leads to pensions rising. Whoever has a job pays their taxes, which means that public authorities receive revenue which leads to improvements in public healthcare, in education and in other fundamental services.

Employment is the major priority at this time and in the years to come in our country. All of you here today are aware that we have gone through a very difficult time. We came to power in a situation of enormous complexity and we set some targets, the most important being job creation, accompanied, as you would expect, by economic growth, because one cannot exist without the other.

We had to take some tough decisions during the first two years. In 2012 and 2013, we did not see any results, but by last year, by 2014, for the first time in seven years, 440,000 jobs were created in Spain and 440,000 Spaniards were able to find a job. This year, 2015, more than 500,000 Spaniards are going to find a job and in March of this year we have already seen the first figures: more than 160,000 more Spaniards were able to contribute to the Social Security system; they will contribute to improving the well-being and wealth of this country.

The objective for the years to come must be that 20 million Spaniards are able to work and contribute to the Social Security system. And this can be done by quite simply not changing our economic policy and by achieving, which is the most important aspect, that the results on job figures that we will see this year are also achieved in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Dear friends,

We have also taken, aside from decisions on economic policy, some decisions to overcome these problems of unequal opportunities. We have tried to foster jobs for women throughout the country, by rewarding employment contracts for women through positive programmes and actions to improve their employability and self-employment through tailor-made plans and measures to accompany this.

Women presently represent 46% of those who make National Insurance contributions; in other words, of those who work. This figure must be raised and it can be done, and I am absolutely convinced that this will take place in the years to come; but we already have a figure of 46% and the challenge must now be for many more people to find work so that the balance, the distribution, can be 50-50. This can be done and we are going to make an effort to resolve the problems in terms of equal opportunities.

Shortly, the Council of Ministers will approve the Rural Women Empowerment Plan; a plan which will develop the provisions contained in the Strategic Plan for Equal Opportunities and which will coordinate, for the first time in Spain, in a comprehensive manner, equality policies in the rural environment through a model of intervention and direct support for women. Seven ministerial departments under the govern I head up are involved in developing this plan. Promoting access to funding for projects and initiatives for rural women and the extension of broadband infrastructures are some of the issues we will tackle within this plan, which will also foster entrepreneurship, self-employment and the participation of women in the sustainability of the rural environment.

The plan will also include measures to boost collaboration from rural women's associations and to publicise their importance, as well as to foster conciliation and joint responsibility and increase the presence of women in leading positions and on the management boards of farming cooperatives and local action groups.

We want to take this route because it is a route that leads to improved civilisation and it is a route that leads to greater progress, which is what, at the end of the day, must be the pursuit of those who believe in civilisation.

I am optimistic about the future of our country. Ours is a country that has gone through, as indeed have so many other countries, good times and bad times, better times and worse times, but, if we look at what has gone on in our country over the course of the last 50 years, because things must always be viewed with a sense of perspective, we can say that Spain is one of the five countries in the world to have most increased its per capita income over that period, in other words, what people have in their pockets.

Spain has improved a great deal over recent years. We have gone through some economic crises; the harshest, the economic crisis we have been through over the last few years: six years without growth, six years of jobs being shed. But the Spanish people, the people themselves, have shown their tenacity, determination, strength and courage to overcome difficult situations.

Last year, as I said before, for the first time in many years, we created jobs and we are now at a stage, if we don't change course, which will continue to represent fundamental progress into the future. And there the role of women, which fortunately is ever greater in society, must increase. That is the challenge, that is what you are working towards, that is a just cause and you can count on the support of everyone.

Thank you very much