Paris mayoress was received by the King in La Zarzuela./Picture: A.R.R./La Razón.
Eva Cantón. Madrid.
Two days in Madrid have been enough for the socialist Anne Hidalgo to be received by Philip VI in an audience, to hold a meeting with the president of the Government, Mariano Rajoy, with the mayoress, Ana Botella, and with the still secretary general of the PSOE, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba. Besides, she has collected the prize “personality of the year” granted by the magazine “Vanity Fair”.
Hours before her meeting with the King, the mayoress of Paris, whose origin comes from Cadiz, shared her view on the Spanish monarchy, the renovation process of the PSOE or the rise of extremism in Europe, with the French Institute of Madrid.
“It is true that I am republican, I cannot affirm otherwise, but the monarchy and the new king have a very important role. The symbol of unity that the king provides is very important”, she pointed out before the press without even mentioning the controversy about the convenience of a referendum about the structure of the State. “I am not here to lecture anyone”.
Hidalgo said she “trusts” a democracy as the Spanish one that, despite its youth, has overcome problems arising in the recent history of the country. She also admitted that the institutional crisis is not only happening in Spain because the entire Europe is being affected. What is her remedy to face it?: Invite the citizens to speak so that they can recover their trust in democratic processes.
“To face the institutional crisis, we have to invite the citizens to speak”
In her opinion, where there is “information, culture and democratic debate”, that is, where the citizens have a critical opinion on matters affecting them, the democracy “behaves better”. Hidalgo reached this conclusion after confirming that in Paris the vote to the extreme right-wing National Front in the recent elections to the European Parliament did not even get to 10%.
About the process the PSOE is undergoing to choose their next leader, she only had supportive words for the initiative of listening to their members. “When you invite the members to speak, you become stronger to be able to reconstruct the political offer”, she highlighted.
Two great cultural events that the City Council of the French capital plans to celebrate in 2015 –an exhibition on Velázquez at the Grand Palais and an event on gypsy culture- focused her agenda with the monarch. Meanwhile, she proposed the mayoress of Madrid to attend the Summit of sustainable development of the UN that will take place at the end of next year.
