CONSTITUTION DAY RECEPTION, 14th March 2014
Síndic general
Vicenç Mateu Zamora
CONSTITUTION DAY RECEPTION
14th March 2014
Honourable and Right Honourable Sirs,
Your Excellency the Nuncio; Your Excellencies, the Ambassadors
Fellow citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen
It is a great honour for me to speak to you today, at this celebration of the 21st anniversary of the Constitution.
This year, as in previous years, the General Council has become a place to meet and commemorate: it was on another 14th March that the Constitution was passed by a popular referendum of the Andorran people.
In the name of the Síndic’s office and all the Councillors, I must thank you for showing your support at this official ceremony. I would like to take this occasion to welcome those who are following the event on television and, of course, send my most sincere greetings to our joint and indivisible Heads of State, the Co-Princes.
Welcome to this event which celebrates and reaffirms our political identity.
Because this basic law is, above all, the materialisation of centuries of law, customs and practices and own institutions. This is the supreme law that governs us and also our calling card to the world.
Ladies and gentlemen,
It was twenty-one years ago that the fourteenth of March became a notable date on the calendar, a reminder of the civil and political commitment which we made in a modern, written Constitution.
Since then, once a year, we relive the importance of that crucial moment when we laid down the foundations of contemporary Andorra. We evoke who we were and how we have become who we are. Throughout the year, we have tried to remember this major event with due respect, our aim being to combine the popular festive celebration with a series of events and conferences, which have enabled us to hear the interesting viewpoints of some of the main protagonists and reflect on the special circumstances surrounding the process.
But the outcome is far more important than the process. Twenty-one years ago we announced our decision to “persevere to promote values such as freedom, justice, democracy and social progress, and maintain and strengthen harmonious relations between Andorra and the rest of the world, on the basis of mutual respect, co-existence and peace”.
Twenty-one years ago, we declared, and I quote: “the will to invest effort and collaboration into all of humanity’s common causes, especially towards preserving the Earth’s integrity and guaranteeing a decent livelihood for future generations”. It was then that we expressed “the wish for Andorra’s motto, Virtus, unita, fortior (“Virtue united is stronger”), which has guided Andorra’s historically peaceful transition for more than seven hundred years, to continue in force and guide Andorra’s actions forever”.
Exactly twenty-one years ago we, the Andorrans, reaffirmed what we are and what we would like to be, with due modesty and humility but also with determination. For, in the history of Andorra, as in the history of any other country in the world, what is not fate is free will.
Welcome fellow citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen,
We have come far. The signing of the first Pariatge, on 8 September 1278, symbolizes in the collective imagination the birth of Andorra’s current institutional form. This clearly determines her individuality and identity, and does so far better than any other event in the past because, irrespective of the progress of other territories with medieval charters, we the Andorrans have turned that early equilibrium into one of our distinctive traits.
However, identity is not just the sum of a series of characteristics which make us unique and incomparable, distinguishing us from others. Identity is principally own consciousness, the consciousness of being and wanting to be. In Andorra in the Late Middle Ages, the emerging perception of own sovereignty crystallised in 1419 when Andreu d’Alàs created the Consell de la Terra (Land Council), the predecessor of the present General Council. Soon, five years from now, it will be time for us to celebrate its sixth centenary with due ceremony. (1419-2019).
The origins of our parliament, almost 600 years ago, mean that today it is one of the oldest in Europe, even though its duties have changed over time. The General Council, with legislative, executive and also judicial duties, was for centuries the unmistakable expression of the power of the Land to counterbalance the Co-Princes’ power. Alongside the Government, which deals with national and international politics and is also a legacy of this first institution, the Council represents the Andorran people and exercises legislative power. The Council is the seat of the people’s sovereignty, where democracy and reason have always been real, not just a principle.
Josep Pla, in Un petit món del Pirineu (A small world in the Pyrenees), compares the customs of large countries with those of Andorra. Pla sustains that “...in large unitary countries, there is a complete human void, because the immense majority of people do not have the slightest idea and know nothing about, nor are they concerned for their town, their region, or their country in general. In Andorra,” says Pla, “it is the opposite. The Andorrans are concerned about everything, are involved in everything, spend the whole time talking and discussing everything – from cutting trees or an irrigation ditch, or a contract with a shepherd who has released his flock on the land without permission from the community. One might say that this is archaic,” continues Pla. “Archaic? What is archaic is the situation in Paris, Milan, Rome or Barcelona, where the locals never know anything about what happens around them and cannot defend themselves in any way. In Andorra, people defend their positions – or rather their ancestral customs – vociferously.”
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have crossed the centuries and, despite some misfortunes, have managed to preserve Andorra’s identity, which is solid as the mountains and, like the landscape, mutates to meet the times.
The greatest transformation that Andorra has undergone until now is, without doubt, the one that occurred in the 20th century. Andorra’s economic development, linked to the boom in tourism, encouraged steep population growth: from 5,000 inhabitants in 1930 to the 70,000 there are today. Economic modernisation accelerated political and social change. Society, which had been culturally uniform, became diverse and plural.
We owe our legacy of prosperity in the last half of the last century to our grandparents and parents, to our grandmothers and mothers, and let us not forget that while some of them were descended from generations of Andorrans, many others had just arrived, drawn by the opportunities offered by a country under construction. Andorra today, both ancient and modern, Pyrenean and cosmopolitan, is the legacy of all those who knew how to combine their efforts towards a common goal.
Now, faced with an equal or greater challenge – of opening up – we should learn a lesson from their example about coexistence, perseverance and unity; about respect and caution. A tree bears better fruit when the graft takes water through ancient roots.
We are immersed in the empire of speed, novelty and immediacy. “The here and now”, the “right now”, could erase our vital memory. The philosopher Alain Finkielkraut warns us that in the democratic age, all authority except the authority of opinion is suspect. Freed from tradition and transcendence, democratic man thinks like everyone else while believing that he thinks for himself. His pleasures, dislikes, convictions, indignation – says Finkielkraut – reflect the spirit of the times; democratic man feels original and independent while ensconced in everyday public opinion.
Clearly, we should not be left out of globalisation but for us to become involved without losing our identity in the process, we must promote our individuality, our differences, everything that makes us truly unique: the rich natural and cultural heritage we enjoy, our language and our special institutions and also the intangible baggage created by history and tradition.
Andorra is and should be the centre for opening up to the world. We want to be involved in globalisation while remaining loyal to ourselves, with a truly Andorran point of view. We should not be afraid to assert ourselves in the face of today’s absolutism.
We have come a long way and the reason that we have survived is that while being enriched by highly diverse contributions, we have not made the mistake of wanting to be something we are not or devaluing or despising what we have.
Ladies and gentlemen, fellow citizens,
I have said that ours is the legacy of Andorran pioneers who, through their work, raised a modern, wealthy, welcoming country.
However, the model on which we based our growth has long shown signs of weakness. We cannot delay any longer: it is time to build a new Andorra, a meritorious Andorra, the future Andorra that we wish to leave to our children.
Because it is with merit and effort that we will write our future and, in order to ensure that everyone can freely develop their own potential and strengths, we the institutions must provide equal opportunities to all citizens.
However, the actions that we can take as public powers are not enough. Without avoiding our responsibilities as governors, we would hereby advise everyone – but especially those with the most resources – to believe in this country, to invest in this country, to employ the people and talent of this country.
Andorra has been and is our home and our path in the world, but we cannot value it solely in terms of interest or utility, just as we cannot value people solely in terms of efficiency. We are ever more important. The true value of individuals and countries cannot be counted in numbers; the collective identity is not a question of opportunity.
Now is the time to be grateful to Andorra, to all those who have given their best to make Andorra what it is today, whether born here or arriving from abroad, and above all those old Andorrans who, in times of scarcity, remained loyal to their history and customs. With renewed energy, with a constructive spirit, we should learn how to repay Andorra at least part of what she has given us.
Patriotism today, as we start to see faint signs of an end to the recession, involves and is, above all, generosity and depth of spirit.
We cannot allow this crisis, the worst in our recent history, to take one of our most prized assets: the friendly coexistence by and between everyone. The erosion of the middle classes, the danger of a widening gap between those who have most and those who do not, threatens social stability. Exclusion is a real danger which currently does not depend on either a difference in income or whether we have work or not. We should remain alert and do everything we have in our power from the public sphere – and also from private business – to combat it, with ingenuity, will and fortitude.
Fellow citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are lucky to live in a great country. Today, we are renewing the commitment that we made then, on 14 March 1993. As we know, the inspirational principles proclaimed by the Constitution to guide the actions of the Andorran state are: respect and the promotion of freedom, equality, justice, tolerance, the defence of human rights and personal dignity. These are universal values which we embrace as a people and which therefore form part of the Andorran identity. The same identity as always, an identity under permanent construction.
The solemnity of this act – 21 years of the Constitution – leads us to pronounce very grand words: freedom, justice, democracy, equality – impossible to deny.
But to attain great ideals you must begin with small, daily gestures. Only when we are capable of improving our relationship with our environment, that is, the people around us, shall we be capable of gradually changing the world.
Thank you. Long live Andorra!