The president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, highlighted this Wednesday, during the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Statute of Autonomy, that this must be “a living instrument for social, economic and cultural transformation”, and warned that “little it will serve if it works as a mirror to contemplate a longed-for past».
The event, under the motto “40 Years Fent Country”, was held at the Palacio de las Comunicaciones, the former headquarters of Correos in Valencia, which was recently acquired by the Generalitat. The whole Council has attended; the president of Les Corts, Enric Morera; the Government Delegate, Gloria Calero; the trustees of Greuges y Comptes, Ángel Luna and Vicent Cucarella and the president of the Consell Valencià de Cultura, Santiago Grisolía.
Representatives of the main Valencian institutions and municipalities have attended the celebration, but no representative of PP, Cs or Vox. Nor have the former popular presidents of the Generalitat been. The reason, as various leaders of the Valencian right have pointed out throughout the week, is the motto chosen to commemorate this event.
The leader of the PPCV, Carlos Mazón, regretted a few days ago that the Consell used this day “to continue through the division, insinuating that we are one of those countries that wants Catalan independence.” “With this motto it is divided, it is not added and an opportunity to unite is wasted,” he assured.
In his speech, Puig explained that the Community is facing a “transforming” time with work, equality and “fair sustainability” as priorities, a context in which self-government must be a “great lever” of momentum, but he has warned that “the Statute will be of little use if it works as a mirror to contemplate a longed-for past” or as a “mirror to look at ourselves in a fixed image”. On the contrary, he has pointed out that it should be “a window to look beyond” and “decide how we want the Community to be, 40 years from now.”
Likewise, it has underlined that the Statute is the “concretion of a will to live together”, from diversity, and that “it is the book that allows five million Valencians different ways of being Valencians” and choose a life project “without sectarianism” or “turning one’s back on part of society”.
Along these lines, he has assured that “the Valencian voice is the voice that dialogues, agrees and proposes”, that “does not shout, does not twitch, does not polarize”, “the voice that raises bridges and knocks down walls”. Thus, he has ensured that the “Valencian voice will always be present for ‘fer country’, community and territory in all places.”
On the other hand, he has pointed out that the Statute emanates, among other “short-term” obligations, that of “overcoming all centralism”, “which are never intelligent no matter where they are done”, and are “unfair, inefficient and more typical of the 19th century”. For this reason, he has called for “more equity in investments and greater decentralization.” However, he has pointed out that the Community is not an island and, therefore, it is necessary to “make a country” claiming a “Spain of Spains that is fairer and more inclusive of diversity.”
The music of Al Tall and El Diluvi has accompanied this commemoration. Al Tall has performed ‘A Miquel Grau’, a song dedicated to the young man from Alicante who suffered a fascist attack that cost him his life in October 1977 when he was hanging up posters in Alicante claiming 9 d’Octubre. In addition, they have also sung a duet with the group El Diluvi, with whom they have performed classics such as ‘El Tio Canya’.
At the event, a video was presented in which the advances provided by the Statute were reviewed with five experts in different areas: the oncologist Anna Lluch, the artist Carmen Calvo, the doctor in History Vicenta Verdugo and the former general secretaries of Intersindical and the FeSP-UGT Vicent Mauri and Luis Lozano.
In it, they have highlighted that the Statute allowed the public services of the welfare state “to reach all the regions”; that the document generated debates that were closed thanks to a “great effort of consensus”; They have alluded to the “very important advances” in health and education and have emphasized that it allowed them to “decide their own policies on matters that affect our living conditions,” among other aspects.
In another video, four Valencians born in 1982 have explained how they imagine and love the Valencian Community in another 40 years: that “it continues to be a land of opportunities”, also in the rural world, and “solidarity” without problems of coexistence; a “more egalitarian” society that no longer has to concentrate on sexist murders; a Community that has opted for technology and innovation; that cares for the environment and is committed to the future but “looking towards its culture and traditions” and where Valencians and Castilians coexist “without problem”.
During her speech, the Regional Minister for Democratic Quality, Rosa Pérez Garijo, recalled that the Statute was made possible by the consensus of the political forces and the social struggle for this regulation. The councilor has recalled the motto of those mobilizations: “Libertat, autonomy i estatut d’autonomia”. “We have been Fent País for 40 years now,” she added.
Pérez Garijo has also reviewed the demands of current Valencian society, from the recovery of Valencian civil law to underfunding and the conclusion of the Mediterranean Corridor.
Former President Joan Lerma has recalled the “complicated” process of preparing the Statute. “From being one of the first autonomies to claim, we became the ninth statute that was approved,” he added. Likewise, he has lamented how “little peaceful” the transition was in the Valencian Community.
Lerma has also “broken a spear” in favor of the current political representatives and has ensured that the political class that approved the Statute had no less capacity for agreement than the current one. “Let’s see which of them would have made a government agreement in the current multi-party scenario.”
The commissioner for the 40th anniversary of the Statute, Joan Sifre, recalled the “democratic struggle of the dictatorship” and, citing Estellés, urged “assuming the voice of a people”. Sifre has pointed out that “Fent País” is an expression “very much ours” that represents building a society. In addition, he has requested that the 40th anniversary of the Statute “leave behind stages of confrontation” and that it serve to “continue promoting self-government.”
During the institutional act, a video has been projected that reviews “how the Statute has changed us”, from various perspectives such as health, from the hand of the Professor of Medicine at the University of Valencia, Anna Lluch; public services, in the mouth of the former secretary general of FeSP-UGT PV, Luis Lozano; culture, with the contemporary artist and National Prize for Plastic Arts Carmen Calvo; education, with the professor and ex-intersindical spokesperson Vicent Maurí, and equality, with the doctorate in History from the University of Valencia Vicenta Verdugo.
In this video, they have highlighted that the Statute allowed the public services of the welfare state “to reach all the regions”; They have recalled that one of its articles in 1982 included equality between men and women and that the document generated debates that were closed thanks to a “great effort of consensus”; They have alluded to the “very important advances” in health and education and have emphasized that it allowed them to “decide their own policies on matters that affect our living conditions,” among other aspects.
