Amid the noise from the usual partisan skirmishes, the lack of fundamental agreements to renew constitutional bodies, and the resulting institutional breakdown and echoes of external events such as those in Brazil (reminiscent of what happened at the Capitol two years ago), politics seems doomed to be the whirlwind driving the evil of polarization. However, the Professor Manuel Broseta Foundation’s delivery of the XXXI Coexistence Award yesterday claimed otherwise.
“The role of politics is to guarantee coexistence.” The phrase was uttered by Joan Lerma, the former head of the Generalitat, responsible for speaking on behalf of this year’s winners: the draft commission of the Valencian Community Autonomy Statute. With Ximo Puig and Alberto Núñez Feijóo present at the Palau de la Generalitat, his intervention was also an advocacy of politics as a problem solver and a warning to public representatives.
This work and the “commitment” to reach a “meeting point” was what he valued when deciding, on the 40th anniversary of the jury’s confirmation in 2022, that the prize for this edition should go to those who support the core regional standard of Valencians. . “We can be proud of what we did that day,” Lerma said. While receiving the award, the former head of the Generalitat emphasized the “will to integrate” the Autonomy Law, after recalling the “obvious difficulties” faced by “reluctance” and “reluctance” from “many sections of society” at the time. However, he applauded the negotiation, which led to “agreement between the main political forces” and turned the regional norm into a “guarantee of coexistence”.
The words of the winners’ representative and former regional president seemed to permeate the subsequent speeches of Ximo Puig and Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Both emphasized the award-winning commission’s role in securing the State of the autonomies and appealed to the values of harmony, unity and coexistence to strengthen democracy.
Flower presentation and souvenirs
This is why Puig called for “less tension and more cooperation”, because now it is necessary to “build” and advance “regional coexistence”. In this sense, Consell’s chairman has rejected “fanatics and populism”, which he warns today “darken the horizon” with “consensus”. It is the responsibility that will put out the bonfires of populism and protect coexistence with equality.”
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, chairman of the jury and leader of the PP, took “the responsibility of not forgetting and not losing the memories of those who fought to become what we are today”, including Manuel Broseta. “This fight cost him his life,” he recalled. That’s why, he stated, “thanks to the people on the committee that drafted the Charter and Broseta” if Spain is the most decentralized state in Europe today.
Earlier, the two political leaders, together with others such as PPCV leader Carlos Mazón or Government delegate Pilar Bernabé, attended the flower presentation at the jurist’s monolith on Avenida Blasco Ibáñez in Valencia to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary. It’s the first anniversary of his murder by ETA. There, one of his sons, Pablo Broseta, called on those who “govern our future” to “make an effort to return to pact and harmony” as they did “40 years ago”.