The Spanish people decided 40 years ago "to move towards a democracy as the nation of us all", says Mariano Rajoy

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Mariano Rajoy presided over the award ceremony in the Prado Museum for the 17 Great Crosses of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise, awards that he defined in his speech as "the maximum recognition of the whole nation for those whose talent, ideas and enthusiasm make our history great".

The President of the Government, accompanied by the Minister for Education, Culture and Sport, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, thanked the award-winners for their contribution to knowledge, culture and art, as well as their role in stimulating young people in such different fields as study, politics, communication, cinema, writing and the theatre.

"Our history is long, old and full of admirable contributions and personal projects such as those we have recognised here today. Projects of commitment, of merit and excellence, of talent, of integration and of hard work. Example of the best civic values and conduct towards Spain, the main virtue of which is creating closer and indivisible ties between generations, between people, between regions and also between nations", he declared.

The President of the Government stressed the suitability of the Prado Museum as the backdrop for this tribute. As well as being "the leading benchmark in Spanish culture", this art gallery is, in his opinion, "the living memory of the universal vocation of our culture, of the historical experience of our nation as well as bearing witness to the ambitious project of shared success that we have built together".

Cooperation and concord

Mariano Rajoy praised the legacy of Alfonso X the Wise, both for his contributions to science, culture and European legislation, and for constituting an "example of co-existence" and "a wonderful example of the good results that this spirit of cooperation and of unity have provided the Spanish people with over the course of our history".

This same spirit, he pointed out, is what prevailed in achieving the milestone in Spanish democracy which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year: the elections of 15 June 1977. From this "free" decision was born the Constituent Parliament, "of which its politicians were tasked with drafting and presenting a Constitution that allowed all the people of Spain to benefit from it, while being the only ones with the ability to approve it".

Mariano Rajoy added that the political parties took on the responsibility of seeking a future pact and to urge the Spanish people to sign up to a common project. "And the Spanish people took up this challenge: we adopted concord to ensure dialogue, debate and, of course, to contrast ideas and projects, and we decided to move towards democracy as a nation for us all", he maintained.

It was then that Spain began to be the "political, social and economic nation of everyone", which has resulted in greater plurality, amplitude and freedom of culture, creation, thought and "even of opinion", argued the President of the Government.