COMUNICATION

The President of the Regional Government of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, has advocated this Saturday for seeking strengths through the meeting spaces where we can share visions, opinions and nuances. (20/03/2021)

This was expressed during his speech at the virtual closing of the I International Congress on “Relations Between Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean: A Meeting Space”, which has been organised by the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation, the University of Extremadura (UEx) and the Centre for Ibero-American Studies of the Rey Juan Carlos University (CEIB-URJC). A Congress in which the Director General of External Action, Rosa Balas, also participated.

In this context, the head of the regional executive has warned that “we are living in complex and uncertain times”, which is why he highlighted the need to “search for and find shared elements and spaces”.

In addition, he stressed “the importance of everything that spaces where we cannot only speak and express our opinions, but also confront realities and views, represent”.

These spaces, he said, are “absolutely essential” at the moment because “if there is something that the Covid-19 has given way to, it is a certain sense of vulnerability, which is the consequence of the doubt about what is to come or what may happen”.

“These are times in the world when we have discovered that we need each other very much,” he assured.

Thus, he went on to say that “everything that the Covid-19 has brought about is not foreign to anyone” because “all of a sudden, the world, which thought itself so safe, has been submitted to all possible doubts”.

A SPACE FOR SHARED DIALOGUE BETWEEN EUROPE AND AMERICA

Fernández Vara has also put in value this Congress that represents “a magnificent space of dialogue open to those who have much experience and also to those who are eager to move forward”.

“Now, more than ever in life, we lack those who are eager to move forward and those who have many grey hairs, because the combination of being eager and having grey hairs is vital; some represent the illusion for what is to come and others the experience of what has occurred,” he claimed.

In this sense, he highlighted that the Extremaduran town of Guadalupe is “the most European city in Latin America and the most American city in Europe”, and recalled that when “the merger” between the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation and the Extremaduran Centre for Studies and Cooperation with Ibero-America (CEXECI) took place, the objective was that “Latin America and Europe should shake hands”.

In this manner, he pointed out, this has been achieved, because “we have refused to forget history which, in turn, reminds us who we are and where we want to go”, while he has cautioned that “sometimes we insist on rewriting history, when it is really history which leads the way”.

For this reason, Fernández Vara has urged that from Extremadura “we continue projecting everything that means Europe and everything that represents Latin America”, because he has reiterated that “we are going to need each a lot, more than we have ever imagined, and it is there where we should be seeking spaces for dialogue”.

Finally, the President of Extremadura has also valued the work of all those whose research work on relations between Europe and America will be recognised during the event, “the best side of society, where we have now discovered that the coronavirus is defeated through science, research and study”.