King Felipe VI has once again invoked the spirit of the Transition and the "broad-mindedness" of those who were its protagonists to insist that democracy does not conclude on the next November 29, the date on which Spaniards are called to the polls, but rather requires a "daily commitment" from all citizens to safeguard institutions and ensure coexistence.
From the podium of the Campoamor Theatre in Oviedo, at the closing of a new edition of the Princess of Asturias Awards, the monarch emphasized that the functioning of democracy in a "mature society" like the Spanish requires time and consistency.
"It does not end in elections like the ones we will soon experience, where citizens will have, once again, the very high responsibility of defining the political direction of our country," he stressed.
The King has defended that democracy "requires a daily, civic, and demanding commitment, a care for its forms and institutions, to continue guaranteeing our coexistence, to illuminate that search for the common good that attends to and balances the legitimate interests of all citizens."
Felipe VI has also pointed out that democracy "is also an experience and a learning process" that Spaniards have been acquiring over the five decades that have passed since the approval of the Political Reform Law of 1977, with which the structures of the Francoist regime were dismantled.
As he emphasized, the Transition "was a complex process, based on generosity and broad-mindedness" and allowed citizens to "nothing less than peacefully and admirably move from dictatorship to freedom." This period had as its pillar the Constitution of 1978, "capable of embracing all Spaniards without any distinction."
The King has insisted that this path "continues forward," "is renewed year after year," and "obliges us all to be humble, to remain alert, to also renew as citizens our constant will to learn and improve."
Calls for sincerity and reflects on Artificial Intelligence
At another moment in his speech, and after quoting Jorge Luis Borges, Felipe VI highlighted the value of sincerity. "Sincerity in what we do, want, long for, and imagine: that is the essential requirement to complete our learning, for efforts to bear fruit, to have something valuable to give back to society."
The monarch has stated that this attitude is embodied by this year's awardees with the Princess of Asturias. "They give us excellent examples of how far a life, a trajectory, a project of creation or research can go when lived with sincerity; a sincerity that an algorithm can never reach on its own," he has claimed.
As he has been doing in his recent interventions, Felipe VI has again referred to Artificial Intelligence, acknowledging that it "has more than demonstrated that it can absorb all human knowledge and return it synthesized with astonishing immediacy."
However, he has raised the question of whether it would be capable "of something very different, almost opposed: of learning through time, through the passage of time, gradually reconciling --as we human beings do-- knowledge with that necessary moral learning that only age, consideration for others, and experience can give us."
For the King, "the moral of all this is that we need to give ourselves time. Time to obtain results, to achieve objectives, to reach goals; and we also need patience, as societies; above all, in this world of technological acceleration," he has emphasized.
In his opinion, "we have much to offer and to offer ourselves." "Let us give ourselves time, let us give ourselves trust, to reach the best version of ourselves," he has appealed.
Recognition to Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía
Felipe VI has also wanted to dedicate a few words to Princess Leonor, who spoke before him at the ceremony. "It is a pride," he said, to see how the heir to the throne "continues to take firm steps as Honorary President of the Foundation, while she is being educated and accumulating valuable experiences in her life learning, as Infanta Sofía also does."
In this edition of the awards, for the first time, the Princess of Asturias has received the awardees alone before the official event at the Teatro Campoamor, without the presence of Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, thus marking a new milestone in her progressive assumption of institutional responsibilities.