Speech by the President of the Government at his meeting with young people on the 40th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

President of the Government: OK, a very good morning, my friends. Welcome to Madrid. Thank you very much for coming here, to the Moncloa Palace, to visit us and to share with us your energy and your enthusiasm.

From the start I wanted this Moncloa Palace, this Council of the Moncloa Complex to be seen as the House of Government. It is an open house; it is a place that is close, open to all citizens. I wanted it to be like this for a simple reason that you are going to discover, or will have discovered this year, your 18th year. The reason is that whoever is here, those of us who are here, are here because you, the citizens, have determined that this should be so.

My friends, it is true that your generation has grown and become part of society in what has unfortunately been a very difficult, a very complex time, full of uncertainties for Spain and for Europe.

The economic crisis that we are leaving behind has had a devastating effect on many families; on fathers, mothers, your loved ones, I have no doubt about that. I'm sure that you can think of some dramatic events occurring in these among your close circle.

And all this damage and after-effects of the crisis in the everyday life experienced by many of you has created in your generation a legitimate - and, I'd like to stress the word "legitimate" - sense of anger, of distancing, of protest, against the public institutions.

That is why I believe that the main task for Spain must be to recover the trust of its citizens in its institutions, in its public institutions and in its democracy above all, when we talk about the need to recover trust, credibility and good feelings by young people with respect to their institutions.

That is why the Government insists that the celebration of this 40th anniversary of the Constitution should as far as possible involve you above all.

Those of us who have had the luck to be born and to have grown up in democracy tend to believe that it is something given, that belongs to us by nature; something that is stable and that will last for ever. But democracy requires citizens to be committed to it, as I am convinced that you have been from the start, but above all, from this year when you have reached legal age.

That is why it is so important to recall how we recovered freedom and democracy in our country, because, my friends, it wasn't easy but it was achieved. I am convinced that you have been told the story on many occasions. Your fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, your loved ones... It wasn't easy, but it was done. It's something that should serve as a stimulus, as a spur, well, when we are overwhelmed by difficulties, as happens in our everyday lives.

Now we are commemorating the first 40 years of our democratic Constitution of 1978. I'm sure you will have learned at school that one day in December four decades ago, the Spanish people were called to the ballot box and endorsed our Constitution with an overwhelming majority. I know that it sounds like something well known, but also distant from you, but consider this: What was Spain aspiring to at the time? What did Spanish society aspire to 40 years ago? Well, among other things we wanted to progress economically, and for this progress to be inclusive, and that no one should be left behind.

We wanted to join Europe. There were countries that considered Europe ended south of the French Pyrenees; we wanted to bring our country into a cohesive whole, recognise the territorial diversity of our country, unite Spain socially. We wanted to modernise our country, from industry to the Welfare State. And what is it that we have achieved in these 40 years? Well, precisely all that - obviously with some imperfections; with errors, of course. But we achieved that and much more. Because we also did so in a very difficult context.

It's true that now it doesn't seem alien to us, but when I tell you you'll see how you'll also see many similarities with how things were then.

We were very ambitious and achieved what we had set for ourselves as a country. The two years of negotiation and approval of the Constitution took place during an economic crisis: unemployment was rising, there was inflation, and social discontent could be seen in the streets.

Fortunately, it has ended, but unfortunately, at that time there was the terrorist group ETA which was killing people indiscriminately. There was also a nostalgic far right: remember the murder of the Atocha lawyers in 1977. It was, in short, a time of extreme difficulty, of extreme complexity.

It was a situation that we could emerge from for a very important reason, and that is that Spanish society was longing for democracy, and was not prepared to allow another historic setback. We had been cut off from democracy for 40 years, cut off from development, from progress, from connection with the international community. And as a result, there was talk of hope, of not wanting to move in the wrong direction, not taking a historical step backwards. This hope extended to everyone. It extended to civil society, to the citizens, and as a result it also extended to the political parties that understood the period Spain was living in. They acted with generosity, despite all the doubts and setbacks that were obviously experienced at the time.

I believe that this is one of the most important lessons that we can lay claim to today. Because citizens have an immense power to condition and direct the future of a country when they act united in a common cause.

And don't think that you are still too young to help your country. Because among those who fought to recover our democracy during the transition there were many young people of your age. And others, a little older, who knew that their future depended on their active involvement in the recovery and consolidation of democracy. This Constitution also accomplished many things for the young people of that time and also those of today.

Although it may appear incredible looking back from today's perspective, the Spain of 1978 had a significant level of, and unfortunately suffered from, illiteracy, which was extremely widespread 40 years ago; but in just a few decades, Spain now has what is the best educated generation of its history: and that's you.

In Spain, there has also been a very emotional phenomenon that is evidence of the immense progress achieved. Some grandparents who are almost illiterate have seen their children grow up well educated and prosper, able to go to university or receive an education in a vocational training centre, something that they could not do. So this Constitution supported and created incentives for something very important for you too, which is the "social lift", which had never existed in Spain: you were born poor and you died poor. Today, in contrast, you can be born with few resources and become a successful person able to develop all your potential.

But let's also think about women. In 1977 there were only 21 female members of parliament out of the 350 in the Lower House of Parliament. Today there are 144. But there is still a great deal of progress to be made in real and effective equality between men and women.

In 1977 there was no woman in the Council of Ministers. Today, 62% of the members of the Council of Ministers are women. We are the OECD country with most women in the Council of Ministers.

And if you look at everyday life, life then, in the Spain of 1977, we see that the change has been even more spectacular.

To give you an idea, women could not travel or open bank accounts then without their husbands' permission. And female adultery was considered a crime. So women stopped being subject to men and became free citizens, as you are today.

The Constitution of 1978 was so open and innovative that it had allowed it to adapt to the times. Often we talk about constitutional reform, we support constitutional reform (I'll make some comments about this a little later on), but we also have to celebrate that it was so open, so advanced for its time that it has been able to adapt to societies that are of course much more developed than they were then. It included, for example, provision for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1979; and same-sex marriage in 2005.

In Spain we always came late to everything, that's true. Often, we came last. In the case of same-sex marriage we were global pioneers, at the vanguard of a new law of which we are particularly proud as a country.

This Constitution repaid a great historic debt of Spain, that of having a constitution that was not partisan, as was the case in the 19th century and that inevitably ended when the other side came to power, or when the Army staged a coup d'état, as happened in the Franco dictatorship.

This Constitution was by all the people and for all the people. It gave us rights, prosperity, cohesion, because, deep down, at the root, the living, beating truth of Spain is that our complexity is also our wealth. Its text allowed us to make material progress, that's true and evident. But above all, it allowed us moral progress: it recovered concord, recovered dignity, as a country and as a society.

And it is in this same spirit that we want to tackle, as I told you before, a reform that gives a boost to our Constitution and that guarantees us many more decades to come of progress; among other things, to address your problems with more emphasis, with more effectiveness. The problems of young people. Often they ask me about them. But it's true that constitutional reform is discussed on the streets. When you meet your friends, I'm sure you don't talk about constitutional reform, but I am sure that you talk about workers' rights; decent wages; the need to recover and preserve the environment; the need to strengthen real equality between men and women. Well, all this has to do with reforming the constitution: adapting our text, our law of laws to the society it serves, which is the society of the 21st century.

It's a mistake to think that your problems aren't your business, or that in the best of cases, they'll be resolved with time. When as young people you suffer precarious employment, unemployment, exploitation, the impossibility of finding a home, or lack of job opportunities that match your training, it is our society, our country, that in fact suffers. And as a result, the future of our society and of our country is affected.

When young are doing badly in the medium term, society as a whole does badly. That is why I want to tell you that at this Council of Ministers meeting we are going to approve a Youth Employment Plan with a very clear three-year target of reducing the unemployment rate by 10 points. We are going to mobilise 2 billion euros over these three years. The next Budget we are going to present in January includes nearly 700 million euros to improve the opportunities of young people in our country.

Forty years ago we started on the best stage of our history, my friends. And I believe that today we are living a similar equally transcendental, exciting time. We can't remain immobile; we have to be as ambitious as we were then, as generous as we were then.

If you look at it carefully, some of today's challenges appear similar to those of that period, as in the case of European construction; at what is a complex time, in which many leaders, politicians, want to retreat, create borders again that in a global world that you know so well are in no way effective in responding to the problems you suffer as a generation, to European construction. This common project has to be strengthened, to be given more empathy, a more social approach.

Also economic prosperity, which cannot be economic prosperity for few, but must be for all. Or social cohesion, or territorial cohesion, while at the same time reclaiming territorial diversity for our country.

But there are also other new challenges of which you are very aware: climate change, management of the digital revolution, and of course the eternal struggle for real equality between men and women.

Think of how unimaginable and intolerable it would be if today a Constitution had only fathers and not also mothers of the Constitution. That is another reason why we need a constitutional reform.

Society moves forward, as it did in 1978, and political parties must rise to the occasion of this desire and know how to channel it.

And you, the young, must be aware of your power to change things. We need your drive. We need your energy to provide a renewed boost, a renewed vigour, to that great collective dream, which was the Spanish Constitution, and that between us all we knew how to make it a reality.

I know that you are often told - and I'm coming to an end - about how your life will be worse than that of your parents. That is something that is said very often now, by analysts and by many people: the coming generation will live worse than its parents. And I ask you that when you listen to this, you should say, no, no. That the future is not written in stone, that you will write it and that you are going to give a lesson to all those prophets of doom who consider that your generation will live worse than the generation of your parents.

Move forward, because I can guarantee you that this Government will also move forward with you. That is also why as well as a need - and thank you very much for that applause - I see in this reform the best homage to the 40 years of the Constitution, and a great opportunity for sustaining a major public conversation on the future of our country.

It will be a deliberation, a public conversation of which we all form part and in which we also feel represented, above all young people, without whose contribution I'm convinced this country will not prosper.

At a time when everything is happening too fast, where certainties fade away, and things appear more ephemeral and unpredictable, it is important to rediscover and reinforce the roots that unite us, such as the Constitution of 1978.

So we count on you. Many thanks for the efforts you made to come here. And congratulations on your 18 years.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)

Non official translation