Felipe VI calls for Spanish unity in his Christmas message

USPA NEWS - The Christmas message from King Felipe VI of Spain was eagerly awaited. According to analysts, it was the best speech of his reign; it did not evade any controversial topic of the Spanish current affairs and exercised its mediating function between the political parties confronted by the lack of consensus for the renewal of the highest instances of the judiciary. Felipe VI called for unity and work for the common good of the Spanish people.

“A divided or confronted country does not advance, it does not progress or solve its problems well; it does not generate trust,” warned the King. “Division makes democracies more fragile; the union, quite the opposite: it strengthens them,” he added. “In Spain we know this from our own experience. Our Constitution, the result of dialogue and understanding, represents the union achieved among Spaniards as a commitment to the future, diversity and concord,” stressed the monarch. And he added: "Our constitutional values are rooted in our society and are therefore the reference where we Spaniards must continue to find the union that ensures stability, cohesion and progress."

Felipe VI called for the "full recognition of our freedoms, together with respect and consideration for people, their convictions and their dignity." Coexistence, he warned, "needs to be guided by reason, which demands putting the will to integrate before the desire to exclude." The King insisted on the need to "strengthen our institutions" to ensure the protection of citizens; institutions, he said, "that respond to the general interest" and respect the Constitution. In this sense, the monarch called for "carrying out an exercise of responsibility and reflecting constructively on the consequences that ignoring these risks may have for our union, for our coexistence and our institutions."

The monarch had started his speech with a memory of the war in the Ukraine. “Just when we thought we were past the worst of the pandemic,” he said, “in February Russia invaded Ukraine and since then we have witnessed ten months of war that has already caused a level of destruction and ruin that is hard to imagine in our daily reality. We are,” he added, “before a new war in Europe, on the borders of some of our European partners and allies and, therefore, close to us. And that not only affects Ukraine, but also has global significance.”

Spain, said the King, supports Ukraine "to reaffirm its commitment that the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of States are inalienable principles of an International Order based on rules and that it must always seek peace." In his opinion, the NATO Summit held in Madrid on June 29 "served to reinforce the unity of all the members of the Alliance and also of the European Union."

The war in Ukraine is causing a significant rise in food and fuel prices, which requires great sacrifices from Spanish families, recalled the monarch. And he stressed that as much as Spain is part of the European Union, it needs Europe.