Speech by President of the Government at lunch offered by President of the United Mexican States

Thank you, President López Obrador; thank you, Mr Foreign Affairs Minister; thank you all for your friendly welcome and hospitality.

If President López Obrador will allow me to share a slight indiscretion with you, it is that, in general, on official visits by foreign presidents to Spain or when a Spanish President of the Government travels to another company, we tend to exchange gifts and we try and make these gifts as personal as possible, so that they mean something and express an intent. In my case, my intent - what I wanted to express through the gift I have made, which was to hand over the birth certificate of his grandfather in 1893, in a small village in Cantabria, is to reinforce the ties and roots that link the two peoples of Mexico and Spain so closely.

By doing this, I wanted to express, above all, the gratitude, pride and honour for the Government of Spain, for our country, to be the first official guests to share with business leaders and also with the Govenrment of Mexico this term of office that began barely two months ago. And express to you all our best wishes for every success because, in the end, success and good fortune in the public actions of the government of López Obrador will be for the good of the Mexican people and consequently also for the good of Spain, which is a sister nation of Mexico.

And, as President López Obrador rightly said earlier, it is clear that we have many roots and ties. We have the President of the CEOE [Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations] here, which is the main business organisation in our country. We have illustrious chairs of large Spanish corporations which have enormous interests in the country you preside over, and what I want to convey, on behalf of all of them - I haven't spoken with them yet, but I am convinced that they will agree with me - is their commitment to the prosperity and progress of Mexico.

This commitment has existed for many years now and is clearly designed to enhance prosperity, progress and equality for all the Mexican people. And also, as I am aware that there are Mexican business owners who invest in Spain, I, as President of the Govenrment of Spain, can but thank you for the trust you have placed in a country like mine which clearly offers great things: legal certainty, social dialogue, social peace and, above all, I believe that we have dynamic workers who want to do what is best for their country as I am sure the people of Mexico do when they set to work.

Hence, economic ties, trade ties, cultural ties and clearly historical ties. One of the questions which will also occupy some time, and is clearly very gratifying for me is being able to visit the Mexico College and to be with some of you sharing - I believe - a very important moment for the common history of Mexico and Spain, and I would also even dare to say for the history of humanity, which is the solidarity of transcending borders - something that remains truly valid.

The exile of so many Spaniards, which now, in 2019, dates back 80 years, met in the person of Lázaro Cárdenas and in Mexican society this new homeland which was denied by Spain as a result of the dictatorship and the repression of the Franco regime. As I said before, a great many artists, film directors and intellectuals came here, but also many nameless, humble people, to work and who, thanks to the welcome and hospitality of the Mexican people found and settled down in their new homeland of Mexico.

That is why, and I said this earlier to President López Obrador, this debt can never be repaid by Spain, by Spanish society, but this desire to express our affectionate and eternally warm relationship with the people of Mexico exists due to what we received at such a traumatic time for Spanish society, and young people must understand and never forget that at such times as the present in which we see these prolific migratory movements in Latin America and also in Africa and in Europe, and be aware that this is not the first time that we have faced such challenges and that in the end their call was answered thanks to such collective values as solidarity, fraternity, respect, tolerance and diversity that President López Obrador mentioned before.

Because indeed, in the same way as business activity, public activity is empty and vapid if not full of values. And I believe that these values are those that President López Obrador mentioned in his speech, and which I also subscribe to.

So, long live Mexico, and long live Spain!

Thank you.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)

Non official translation