The president of the Congress of Deputies, Meritxell Batet, demanded this Tuesday, on the XLIV Anniversary of the Constitution, the "maximum diligence" of political leaders to "maintain the prestige, credibility and regular operation" of the institutions, an allusion to the deterioration suffered by the General Council of the Judiciary and the Constitutional Court due to the blocking of their renewal, which this week has earned a new warning from the European Union.
"The institutions belong to the citizens who entrust them in trust to the political leaders to guard them and ensure their correct function", which "demands, on the part of all, the loyal fulfillment of the promise they embody", said Batet, recalling the words of the former president of the Constitutional Court, Francisco Tomás y Valiente, assassinated by ETA: "Institutions gain or lose prestige for what they do, but also for what is done with them."
In her solemn speech, the president of Congress also alluded to the rude and rude drift of the parliamentary struggle and demanded responsibility from deputies and senators in the performance of their representation functions. Citizens, she pointed out, “expect from their representatives that the word be used to argue, not to hurt; to propose, not to offend; to build, not to hurt”. Batet stressed that "politics is an essentially conciliatory activity" because "it is about using the word as an instrument of persuasion, seeking reasonable balances between different positions, and listening, because listening forces the speaker to do it better".
He also alluded to the constitutional text as a pact that was not the product of fear: "If it had been fear that had motivated the elaboration of the Constitution, we would probably have had a longer, more detailed text, which would have been filled with assurances. and concrete mandates, as can sometimes be found in comparative constitutionalism”. In this sense, Batet assured that "the political matter of our Constitution is hope."
He even dared to correct the old assertion of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and maintain that the constitutional text is not "the product of a sort of correlation of weaknesses but of a sum of generosities", embodied in concessions. Hence, "the vigor of this constitutional framework requires as a necessary condition the strength of our democratic institutions." In this sense, he stressed that "institutions are the visible apparatus of what our public life has wanted to have as a promise, as a binding commitment, as a guarantee", and qualified that, although "they are created by law, but they are nourished by the confidence of the citizens.
And he ended his words by referring to the promise fulfilled by 44 years of political and social progress of "a Constitution that is not a flag but a square" and the duties that this entails: "We celebrate by looking back and appreciating all that has been achieved, but We celebrate it above all by looking to the future, the one we want for our daughters and our sons: We live the dream of our parents and grandparents, let us have the ambition to deliver an even better one to them”.
