Human history could not be understood without the ability of societies to reach agreements. The agreement is the valley through which you can walk, the extension that allows us all to move forward, collectively. Perhaps, in order to reach it, the steep rock must first tear away our eagerness and sweat. But, after this effort, it is necessary to glimpse a common horizon.
Our country's democracy has been written through agreements. Periodically, the parties have ended up understanding each other, because there is no other way to sustain an advanced, breathable and useful system for the majority. Each of these important consensuses has been a victory for society; with each one it has been possible to overcome a peak and serious moment; we can't regret it at all.
The Moncloa Pacts of 1977, which oxygenated a burdened Spain; the constitutional pacts of 1978, the result of a brave spirit of harmony and the future; the autonomous pacts, in 1981 and 1992, which made possible our identity coherence and its governability; the pacts against ETA 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, of course, the State Pact against Gender-Based Violence, in 2017. All of these 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 remove the term "diminished" from the text of our Magna Carta, thus fulfilling a long-standing claim of the · social groups. At first glance, it may seem like a merely symbolic act. A minor matter. But it is not, at all. What happened yesterday is the realization that politics has nothing more to do than to dignify the lives of people, of all people. That it is possible to reach agreements that rise above the partisan melee, 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 all. The valley, as I said at the beginning, we can cross it together, collectively. 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 this union was "obvious proof of the Spanish people's desire for peaceful coexistence". A Constitution that, as he wrote, "is not the Constitution of a party, or even the Constitution of the majority. It is the Constitution of all".
Let's have lucidity and a long view on the events of our present to illuminate our future. We seek to continue writing milestones that sustain our coexistence, not destroy it. This is what political honesty is all about. We know it's possible. We've proven it throughout history.
