Margallo, yesterday, with Marcelino Oreja./ Photo: RM/La Razón
Tamara Fariñas. Madrid
The acting Foreign Minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, warned yesterday about the risk that remaining in a period that “lacks political definition” means for Spain and insisted on the urgency of a “generous and broadminded” dialogue considering the country’s general interest.
During the presentation of the book Historia de la Política Exterior Española en los siglos XX y XXI (History of the Spanish Foreign Policy in the 20th and 21st centuries), which took place yesterday at the Viana Palace of Madrid, the Foreign Minister on duty affirmed that Spain “cannot allow itself a period that lacks political definition” and urged to dialogue between political powers. Nevertheless, he emphasized that although PP is willing to accept a constitutional reform, this must be done driven on “forces participating in the principles and values of the free community in which we live”.
Besides, he pointed out that these political powers must undertake “the obligations that being a member of the European Union entails” and made clear that “they participate and accept the constitutional loyalty” to be able to study the aforementioned reform, which he described as “possible” and “desirable”. In this context, he insisted that all those trying to break the rules, clearly referring to Pablo Iglesias’s party, Podemos, will condemn the country to failure, and he expressed his hope not to witness a recession in Portugal by the “Portuguese coalition” that, according to the minister, “some want to imitate” in Spain.
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“The constitutional reform must not be interpreted as surrender to the separatist pressure”
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In his speech, in which he provided some details of the constitutional reform that the current acting president, Mariano Rajoy, “is willing to discuss”, he affirmed that it “must avoid being interpreted as surrender to the separatist pressure”, but as an “update of the coexistence agreements of 1978”, even if these can result in a solution to the Catalan problem.
The minister did not forget about the Brexit –the possible exit of the United Kingdom from the European block—and he used his speech, which was attended by the British Ambassador to Spain, Simon Manley, to remember that it is an “important partner” with whom Spain shares “important coincidences as regards commercial freedom and competitiveness”. Nevertheless, he insisted that, if it was not like that, its exit from the EU will have to be fast “to avoid being interpreted as the beginning of the end” of the European coalition.
