The history of humanity could not be understood without the ability of societies to reach agreements. The covenant is the valley through which we can walk, the expanse that allows us all to move forward, collectively. Perhaps, to reach it, the steep rock will first take away our effort and sweat. But, after that effort, it is necessary to envision a common horizon.
Our country's democracy has been written through agreements. Periodically the parties have come to understand each other, because there is no other way to support an advanced, breathable and useful system for the majority. Each of these important consensuses has been a victory for society; With each one, a critical and serious moment has been overcome; We can't regret any of them.
The Moncloa pacts of 1977, which oxygenated a burdened Spain; the constitutional pacts of 1978, the fruit of a brave spirit of harmony and the future; the autonomous pacts, in 1981 and 1992, which made our identity coherence and its governability possible; the pacts against ETA's terrorism, and the dialogue that pursued a horizon of peace; the Toledo Pact, in 1995, to guarantee the viability of the public pension system, and, also, of course, the State pact against Gender Violence, of 2017. All of them are milestones in our democracy. All of them define us as a country.
Yesterday, Congress adopted an agreement that will also be historic: the modification of article 49 of the Constitution to eliminate the term disabled from the text of our Magna Carta, thus fulfilling a long demand of social groups. At a glance, it may seem like a merely symbolic act. A minor matter. But it is not, at all. What happened yesterday is the confirmation that politics has no other purpose than to dignify the lives of people, of all people. That it is possible to reach agreements that rise above the partisan body to body, that if we define the problems in common—if we also agree on the use of words—, we can reach community solutions. In reality, there is nothing more useful in politics than consensus. Nothing that makes us move forward with more lightness and determination. Because the consensus is signed with the awareness that improving one's life is improving the lives of everyone. We can cross the valley together, collectively, as I said at the beginning. The cliff, no.
Last week, in Congress, we celebrated the centenary of the birth of a man for whom “dialogue without anger” was the only way to build a full democracy. I am referring to Fernando Álvarez de Miranda, the first president of the Congress of Deputies after the dictatorship. I am sure that he would have celebrated this reform of the Constitution and of course the agreement between all parties, which is what it represents. Álvarez de Miranda, who had the honor of signing it in 1978, said that that union was “evident proof of the Spanish people's desire for peaceful coexistence.” A Constitution that, as he wrote, “is not the Constitution of a party, not even the Constitution of the majority. It is everyone's Constitution."
Let us put lucidity and a long look at the events of our present to illuminate our future. Let us seek to continue writing milestones that sustain our coexistence, not destroy it. That's what political honesty is about. We know it is possible. We have been proving it all through history.
