García-Page considers that “40 years ago Spain took the right path and completed its definition as a country”
Toledo, June 11, 2025.- “40 years ago Spain took the right path and completed its profile as a country”. These are the words of the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, with which today, in Toledo, he has initiated the colloquium ‘A shared path: 40 years of Spain and Portugal in the European Union’, promoted by the regional government, the Felipe González Foundation, and the Real Instituto Elcano, and moderated by the president of the latter institution, José Juan Ruiz.
Before giving the floor to the words of the former Prime Minister of Spain, Felipe González, and the former president and prime minister of the Republic of Portugal, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, both leaders of their respective countries at the time of their entry into the EU, a minute of silence was observed for José Enrique Serrano, who passed away yesterday and was chief of staff for former Spanish Prime Ministers Felipe González and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
The central courtyard of the Palacio de Fuensalida, adorned with notable Portuguese vestiges, has been chosen as the venue for the commemoration of this anniversary, regarding whose beginnings, the regional government leader pointed out that Spain’s entry into Europe brought peace. “It is worth remembering,” he emphasized, “when today in Europe many signs of hatred towards others, those who think differently, those who believe in another god, or those who come from outside, prevail, a further gesture of the populisms that govern us,” he said.
At this point, García-Page recalled words of Pope Francis recommending “combating populism because the hatred based on others should not make us forget that the other is you.”
In the opinion of the president of Castilla-La Mancha, for our country, being part of the Union states meant participating in “a dynamic of peace, solidity, and democracy structured by institutions”. In this regard, regarding institutions, he echoed the words of Jean Monnet, a French politician and economic advisor and a strong advocate of European integration, who warned that “nothing can be done without people, and nothing can endure without institutions.”
Hence the importance that the regional leader places on defending institutions, which “structure our opinion and organize our coexistence, now threatened by the populism that attacks and questions them.”
García-Page acknowledged that Spain and Portugal brought a great social soul to the spirit of Europe and expressed confidence that “growing was not the problem, it was necessary to grow to share.” He also recognized that for Spain, it was a big leap in modernization that began in 1982. “In the first five years of Spain in the EU, the Gross Domestic Product doubled,” he emphasized.
According to the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Europe also introduced us to other changes, such as the functioning method of the country that had to be followed inevitably. “The Spain we have today could not be recognized without the European Union,” he said, while recounting that at that time, there were speeches arguing that “Europe is only worth it if it benefits us.”
The greatest historical success of Spain, alongside the Constitution of ’78, has been the country’s entry into the Union, García-Page stated, even recalling that the serious independence disturbances in Catalonia led to many feeling “dizzy at the thought of not being part of the EU.” The two attacks by the terrorist group ETA on the day Spain and Portugal signed their entry into the European Economic Communities (the original name of the EU) were also remembered by García-Page, convinced that with these attacks, ETA demonstrated that entering Europe was the best for Spain’s unity, as unity has been achieved.
“We are Spanish, then we are European, it is already part of our essence,” García-Page emphasized, defining himself as a “firm Europeanist, as Europe has been and continues to be the answer to major problems.”
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FUENTE