Speech by President of the Government at award ceremony for Gold Medals for Merit at Work

Madrid

Speaker of the Lower House, Madam Minister, public officials, ladies and gentlemen award-winners, dear friends and family,

I can assure you that the award of the Medals for Merit at Work is one of the most pleasant and gratifying events, above all given the times we have been through, that I can take part in as the President of the Government. And it is, as María Teresa Campos mentioned in her speech a few moments ago, particularly on days like today when we have seen such encouraging figures in the employment trends in Spain.

Our country is better now because it has found a way to overcome the worst economic crisis in memory, because it is now heading up growth among advanced economies and because it is creating jobs at a very good pace; and employment, and that is what we are talking about here today, opens up horizons of hope to society as a whole. That is clearly evidenced by the Labour Force Survey that was published this morning. These figures are extremely pleasing to me but, above all, they spur me on and encourage me so that, together with my collaborators and all the other people of Spain, who are the people who truly create jobs, we can continue tackling the toughest economic crisis Spain has gone through in decades.

I don't want to bore you by listing endless figures here. I simply want so say, because we should celebrate this, and above all because it is what will give us more opportunities to continue working optimistically in the future, that this Labour Force Survey shows the largest fall in unemployment since they were first prepared back in the year 1964.

Hence, this is good news because employment, as we have heard here this morning, is the best road map for each person to reap the benefits of prosperity and personal improvement. And for the government, for any government, employment is the most accurate barometer in ensuring that we achieve the goal of creating a better country; a goal that this year coincides with the first 40 years of democracy.

Ladies and gentlemen,

40 years ago we started to write our best success story as a country. We set in motion the longest period of liberty, prosperity, progress and well-being that Spain has ever seen. This is an endless task that relies on the effort and hard work of everyone. Spanish society sought to unite forces and join together very different ideologies to place Spain up there with the other great European democracies. Between us all, we set in motion a shared project with Spanish society because of its interest in harmony, and since then we have shown that no Spanish exception exists, and nor are there reasons to be pessimistic about ourselves.

The easy path of looking for excuses in the past in order not to face the present with a desire to improve the future is over, and the excuses of those that today only seek to separate, divide and confront are also over. Working towards harmony with a view to forging pacts through dialogue is, as we have heard here this morning, the hallmark of the identity of a Spain that chose to be moderate and wants to be modern, thriving and free. Choosing harmony opened the gates to Europe and to the world, and we found a way to fully integrate on the global political and economic stage.

Through the hard work of all concerned, we generated progress and growth, and between us all we built an open, tolerant and dynamic Spain, undoubtedly with its problems, which are circumstantial, but also an open, tolerant and dynamic Spain. A Spain that wants to stand proud and which applauds life stories such as those we are rewarding today, stories of personal effort, of which we are especially proud and, as compatriots, we want to celebrate and share them.

This celebration calls us here today and today we reward people that have found a way to be exceptional in the world of sport, culture, the media, gastronomy, enterprise, trade unions, civil society, etc. These are people that have made things a reality, and this is important, out of the well-known statement that "Success only comes before Work in the dictionary".

This is a celebration that the people of Spain particularly feel with sport stars Pau Gasol and Teresa Perales. They feel this tie when they compete, this energy, this pride we share with their feats. And I want to think that our joy spurs them on and encourages them to continue aspiring to continued improvement. If we are proud of their successes, above all we admire them for their attitude, their positive strength and their work. It is that simple. We want them to be better each day and then we think: good, this is Spain.

Pau has shone like few other players. He has two title rings, has played five times for the All Stars and is among the four best all-round players in the NBA. He has ensured that the whole world admires Spanish basketball and, above all, and this is the most important, he has shown us how to play as a team and pave the way for others. Teresa is an example of resilience and of success, because Teresa Perales, with 26 Paralympic medals, is the Spanish athlete to win the most medals at an Olympic Games. With Teresa, Spain wins.

Dear friends,

Spain is not only a sporting powerhouse; it is also a cultural powerhouse of the first order, due to its history, its heritage and its artists, with such exceptional people as Pedro Iturralde and Aída Gómez, who are unable to be here with us today as they are working. We express our admiration for them.

We thank Pedro Iturralde for his music, his virtuoso performance and his unrivalled ability to synthesise genres with respectful innovation, such as that memorable work of his with Paco de Lucía which brought together jazz and flamenco. With Pedro, as composer and as a master saxophone and clarinet player, Spanish music is listened to around the world.

And we admire the dance of Aída Gómez. She has brought Bizet's Carmen to the stage, which is tantamount to bringing Seville and Spain and our 19th Century history to the stage. Aida cannot be here with us, she is abroad in Mexico on tour, but we send our very best wishes to her for every success and our warm recognition of her whole career. They both work for a more creative, and hence, better Spain.

Dear friends,

This morning we have the honour of having some other artists here with us, artists of the written word and of gastronomy, masters in communication and of the catering industry, with exemplary figures that have become successful through hard work, dedication and talent.

I would like to start with the award of the posthumous medal to the great Paloma Gómez Borrero; an exceptional journalist, which is worthy in itself, but, above all, a wonderful person. Her voice, her stories and her enthralling personality form part of the memory of several generations of Spaniards, and it is only fair to award this medal for a whole life of good deeds, full of commitment and honesty.

Another great figure from the world of communication is María Teresa Campos, from Malaga, although born in Tetuán; an example of professional commitment founded on her charisma - she truly has charisma; at work you have to slave away, while charisma comes naturally - and on authenticity. Teresa, we want to see you employing your talent, as you always do, on the radio, on television and, more recently, in your new role as a writer. And many thanks for your good wishes to me, which are good wishes to Spain, at least while I am President of the Government. Thank you very much.

We also have the example of the great journalist from Andalusia, Tico Medina, a prodigious and prolific talent, who has employed his art on all stages: from the theatre, the radio, the written press, as an international correspondent, on television, as the author of many books… Talking about Tico Medina means talking, as you all know, about the history of Spanish journalism over the last few decades. Thank you very much for your words which we sometimes need.

These three gold medals represent three exemplary life stories which have accompanied us through the media and when we hear their voices we also think that this is the voice of Spain. When we think about Spain, we undoubtedly speak about Cándido, because Alberto Cándido López Duque, descendent of a line of innkeepers at the foot of the aqueduct in Segovia, has managed to ensure that his 'house' is on the must-do list for Spain because of his gastronomy. Through his culinary art, Cándido has shown, as Azorín states on the walls of his restaurant, that "eating is not merely ingesting".

Ladies and gentlemen,

As I said to you a moment ago, our democracy has now been alive for 40 years and the impressive transformation that Spain has undergone between 1977 and 2017 owes a special debt of gratitude to our social stakeholders - the trade unions and business organisations - for their work to ensure harmony. This is a role faithfully played by Joaquín Navarro Fernández, who was the Secretary General of Transportes de Comisiones Obreras in 1977, when, as we were reminded of here, the Atocha massacre took place. Dear Joaquín, the enemies of liberty could not achieve that. Liberty was also won thanks to your exemplary attitude in that very difficult time. Political pluralism won the day, as did democracy, and we all celebrate that.

I wish to express my gratitude to Joaquín's trade union - to Comisiones Obreras. We have collaborated and sought agreements with Ignacio Fernández Toxo, who was its general secretary until just recently, and we shall continue to do so with its new general secretary, Unai Sordo, in the future, because without the commitment of the social stakeholders, as Mr Cuenca recalled in his speech, without the commitment of the trade unions and the employers' association, it would not have been possible to tackle the terrible economic crisis that Spain has suffered from, or to implement the thriving recovery that we are working towards ensuring reaches everyone. It is now a question of not taking the wrong path, of not making the mistakes of the past that could halt our recovery.

That is why we also want to present an award to the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations - the CEOE - founded in the summer of that symbolic year, 1977, and which hence, also celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Four decades after its foundation, and today, with Joan Rosell at its head, the employers' association has modernised and has gained in transparency and in proximity to the needs of companies. The CEOE places a value on the spirit of enterprise and plays an active part in the great social consensuses reached. Over all these years it has contributed to Spain developing as a diversified economy that is open to the world, and which has now risen to stand high among the 15 most prosperous countries in the world.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The number of leading players is on the rise, because a country improves when it knows how to join together. A country also means its companies and companies such as the one owned by Magín Alfredo Froiz, from Pontevedra, who from a very young age, as he said in his speech, began delivering meat from a supermarket. Well now, the Froiz Group has 313 points of sale and employs more than 5,000 food professionals. Thank you very much, Magín, for your contribution to our country through your family business.

But family businesses, like all businesses, need money and financing, which is the technical way to say it, and they also need good professionals from the financial system, and they do exist, such as Amado Franco Lahoz, an economist, a lawyer and the effective President of Ibercaja until 2004. Amado found a way to predict the change of cycle, at the start of the crisis, with measures such as halting certain forms of credit which, in the end, served and allowed his financial institution to tackle the subsequent financial meltdown with greater security.

Dear friends,

Spanish society needs citizens with talent, people who are committed to making their job a catalyst for the expansion of this talent. Spain needs people prepared to learn throughout their life and to exceed their own expectations day-after-day. People determined to be better and to do so in service of a better Spain. That is the story of Miguel Cuenca Valdivia in his work as a labour and social security inspector. He was, as he recalled in his speech, the Secretary-General for Employment and has carried out, with talent, efficacy and a great deal of common sense, many executive roles in the field of labour relations.

That is also the story of Javier Moscoso del Prado, a public prosecutor, jurist, State's attorney and, at present, the Chairman of the Drafting Council of Thomson Aranzadi; an emblematic institution, as you all know, in the world of law. He was Minister for the Presidency under the first government of Felipe González, with enriching and diverse contributions, which included awarding all public servants a period of time after work to resolve their own personal affairs - the concept of free time that he lent his name to. His speech created a problem for me, because he said that it was strange for someone to receive a Medal for Merit at Work who allowed people to work less time. I have a worse problem, because I took this away at the start of this crisis. I should add that everyone has now recovered this and this is one more example of how things are going a little better. What I don't have clear is whether I will be given this Medal one day or not, but that is for another time.

Last but not least - he cannot be here with us, but I will go to Galicia in September - we have Gerardo Fernández Albor. Gerardo Fernández Albor will be 100 in September. That should inspire us all and allow us to face the future with optimism. He was the first President of the Regional Government of Galicia. He was not only the President of the Regional Government of Galicia; he was also a doctor, a member of renowned scientific societies, of renowned cultural associations, and also a pilot. I trust, as I said before, I will have the honour of making this award to him personally in my home town, Santiago de Compostela.

Dear friends,

I will end now. All those of you who receive this Medal for Merit at Work award today are a good snapshot of the country we want to see, a country with values and which values work, a desire to succeed and a shared effort. You are a snapshot of this Spain that strives to become better, and there are many more of you than some would have us believe. Congratulations to you all, to the award-winners and also to your families, who support you.

A country is admired when its people are admired and it is defined by how it treats these admirable people. We have an obligation to acknowledge this merit and the government tries to do so on behalf of all the people of Spain, because making this a better country is incumbent on us all. We want to continue working and, with references such as those we have seen today, I am sure that we will ensure that the best years in Spain's history are those that lie ahead of us, those we are yet to enjoy and those that are yet to be written down in history.

Thank you very much.