Statements by President of the Government prior to events to celebrate Constitution Day in Lower House of Parliament

Madrid

President of the Government.-Thank you very much for coming here. As you are well aware, today we celebrate what is the 38th anniversary of the approval of the Spanish Constitution. This is the most important agreement made in Spain between the Spanish people over the last 40 years. At that time, the vast majority of the Spanish people put their differences to one side and decided to agree on certain rules of co-existence, and in Spain, since then, because that is what the Spanish Constitution means, the unity of Spain, national sovereignty and the equality of all the Spanish people are thus affirmed. And with that Constitution, we joined Europe.

This is a constitution that guarantees our fundamental rights and liberties as people and it is the constitution that has given rise to the period of greatest progress in the recent history of Spain, a country that has seen its per capita income improve a great deal during this time, a country that has a welfare system, or model, such as few other countries in the world can aspire to and, undoubtedly it is one of the greatest countries in the world.

I believe that under the Spanish Constitution we have undergone, for those who don't know this because they haven't lived through part of this, above all our youngest citizens, one of the periods of greatest progress in our history as a nation. The issue now in this legislature is that this spirit of consensus, of agreement and of dialogue that prevailed back then over the political relations between the different parties also prevails, I repeat, in this legislature.

This is a legislature in which the composition of the chamber, as you know, is very different from that of other parliaments formed following the different elections held in Spain. No-one has a majority and the leading political force is a long way from having 175 seats, but that should not be an obstacle to doing things well but rather, on the contrary, it could be a wonderful opportunity to all work together.

In this regard, I feel I should say that the government is satisfied at the way this first month of the new mandate has commenced. The agreement reached on the ceiling on spending, the budget stability and public debt targets, and the Royal Decree Law on revenue is a wonderful agreement in my opinion and I believe that it will help generate confidence and credibility in the Spanish economy. This is well viewed in Europe - the fact that there has been an understanding on this matter - and I believe that things have been done in a reasonable manner.

We must lower our deficit from 4.6% to 3.1%. This is a commitment we have with Europe, but it is also a sine qua non requisite for the economic recovery and job creation to continue, and I think that this agreement is a very good start to this legislature. Spending is controlled, the deficit target is attainable, taxes remain unchanged for the vast majority of Spaniards and hence I believe that we took a good decision last Friday and I hope that this is passed during what remains of this year, both here and in the Upper House, so that it can start functioning next year.

Meanwhile, the fact that some committees and sub-committees have been set up to talk about important issues, such as the Toledo Pact to discuss pensions - undoubtedly one of the major challenges of the future - or the commission to discuss the education pact or the one on gender-based violence… In short, I believe that it is positive for us to talk; then, we will see if it is possible to reach an agreement. We will try to do this but, I repeat, if we all look at this legislature not as a problem because of the composition of the House, which it is, but rather as an opportunity, then I think that things could definitively go better in the future.

Q.- I would like to ask you, President of the Government, if your government will work to satisfy the demands to modernise the Constitution which all the parliamentary spokespersons have been clamouring for that have come this way, all the parties without exception.

President of the Government.- I believe that the Spanish Constitution, as I said before, was a wise decision taken by all the people of Spain; I explained this before and hence I won't go into further detail now. It is clear that the Constitution can be amended or reformed; this has already happened on two occasions. I would like to say that the People's Party is clearly always willing to consider any reform it considers reasonable, but whenever you try to change the basic rules of coexistence then I think you must take certain things into account: the first is that it is important to know what you want to reform; that is key. Then, you need to know which issues to tackle and which issues to leave alone and it is also very important to have a rough idea of the end goal of this undertaking in the event that it comes to fruition. I believe that it is necessary to speak about and agree on these things.

The Constitution, as I said before, is the most important pact forged in the last 40 years, it has been very important for all the people of Spain, and hence, the same as happened back then, it is important to know what will be touched and what will be left alone. Then, we need to clearly set out what we want to preserve. That is what is the most important aspect from my point of view. And what needs to be preserved? The unity of Spain; the ability of all of the people of Spain to decide what they want for their own country, that is, national sovereignty; the equality of all the people of Spain to preserve this, to defend it and to maintain it; our fundamental rights and liberties; our membership of Europe and, of course, the basic cornerstones of the Welfare State which are healthcare, pensions and education.

Of course, I believe that all of this must be preserved because they are the main foundations of coexistence and because I believe that this is something that we all agree upon. Aside from that we can clearly sit down and talk, but I believe that we must be prudent and I believe that we must have clear what we want to amend and what we don't want to touch because there are some things in life that we should know the beginning and the end of beforehand and that is clearly one of those things. This is not an issue to be taken casually, lightly or frivolously, this is an issue in which things must be done well, as indeed was the case back in 1978.

Thank you very much.