Speech by President of the Government at ceremony to award Francisco Umbral Prize for Book of the Year 2016 to Fernando Aramburu for his work "Patria"

Ladies and gentlemen, a very good evening to you.

I will be brief, because what is important has already been said and by much better informed people than myself.

I wish to thank María España Suárez, President of the Francisco Umbral Foundation, for inviting me to this event and for allowing me to share these reflections with all of you.

For me it is an honour to be here and this is true for many reasons. It is true because the prize that the Mayor of Majadahonda and María España have just awarded to Fernando Aramburu bears the name of Francisco Umbral. Francisco Umbral, and this has been said already much better than I am going to be able to express tonight, was, in reality, is one of the most important writers in the history of Spanish literature. A poet, journalist, novelist, essayist, his works have been recognised on a plethora of occasions, including the Cervantes Prize in the year 2000 - and more importantly and something he probably appreciated more is that he received the support of so many of us readers who followed him unconditionally.

For me, and allow me to make a personal contribution, Francisco Umbral was something more than a tremendous writer; he was a journalist who, with total and absolute independence of criteria, distinguished me at all times with his support and affection, with tremendous generosity; with truly unrelenting generosity that always affected me emotionally and which I will never forget.

For that reason, I wish to congratulate Fernando Aramburu, who, from today, is the Francisco Umbral prize-winner; for that reason and, naturally, for "Patria", which kept me on tenterhooks throughout the last Christmas holidays in a village in Galicia, Sanxenxo, as indeed did his work "Los peces de la amargura" when I read that.

"Patria" is a novel, rather than an essay, that must be read. It is a must-read, firstly, to remind us of an important part of our recent history; it is also compulsory reading to see what happened; and also to uncover the truth, now that there are those who have sought to decree that there is no truth, only different perspectives, tales according to the consumer's taste. To understand the truth, you must read "Patria". And also to distinguish between good and bad and to show everyone what a human being must never do.

I have spent many years now in politics. I belong to a political party that has many members, and some of the people that Cristina mentioned in her speech are much better informed than I am to talk about this, who were mercilessly struck by terrorism, as were so many other people who had never done any harm to anyone. I also held the top position in the Ministry of Home Affairs and in both situations I have had to see many things that I would rather not have seen because I would have rather they hadn't taken place, and I have gone through some very tough and very difficult situations, humanly speaking, as they were for many people.

That is why I can say to you that this is a novel in which all the main characters in the novel existed, without their real names and all of the events narrated actually took place, albeit in another form. If you will allow me, "Patria" - if this is possible, which I don't know - is a work of real fiction. That is why it must be read, also to find out, to remember or so that some people can see that, neither the motherland, territories nor hectares come before the individual rights of human beings, the first of which is life, but there are others.

Ladies and gentlemen,

"Patria" has managed to achieve national consensus. This is not easy, as you are all aware. The only exceptions that confirm, furthermore, the very existence of this consensus are precisely those of all those people who have still not understood that the imaginary rights of territories never come before the true owners of these rights, which are people, human beings.

Each reader can interpret, or appreciate, or see in a book what they want to see, interpret or appreciate. I will take this lesson home, as well as the everlasting memory of the victims of terrorism. They have won this battle; they have defeated ETA. The real triumph is yet to come and "Patria" has contributed to this victory which is so moral.

Thank you very much.