COMUNICATION

Yuste Foundation Organises the Online Cycle of Meetings “Guadalupe as a Destiny” to Promote Dialogue on Governance, Science, History and Culture

Yesterday, the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation organised the webinar “Governing Uncertainty” in collaboration with the City Council of Guadalupe. It counted with the participation of the former President of the Spanish Government and recipient of the Carlos V European Award, Felipe González, and with the former President of the Regional Government of Extremadura and member of the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra.

This webinar is the first one celebrated as far the cycle of meetings “Guadalupe Destino” (Guadalupe as a Destiny) is concerned, and are to be held during the months of November and December. There will be a total of four meetings with the aim of promoting dialogue on issues of public interest such as governance, science, history and culture. Various personalities and experts will participate to this end.

At the first webinar, González and Rodríguez Ibarra exchanged views on how to overcome the uncertainty caused by the pandemic in areas such as education, economics and politics. For Rodríguez Ibarra, governing uncertainty “is equivalent to governing over lack of certainty, security and trust,” and only accepting that “radical changes will occur in our way of life and being able to reach agreements to reach a certain harmony can we reach certainty”.

Felipe González, for his part, affirmed that never in his political career had he lived “such a hard time” as the current one, adding that factors such as “confrontation, political tension and the permanent search for a culprit of the crisis and not finding an answer, add more uncertainty to the uncertainty”. In his view, the only certainty we have today is uncertainty, “so we have to be providers of certainty and not make further unnecessary mistakes”.

For the former President of the Spanish Government, one of the possible solutions to overcome this moment of uncertainty is the application of the knowledge that we treasure to reality in order to “transform, reform, digitize, fight climate change and dignify work”.

Finally, Felipe González called for the need “to reach cross-cutting agreements such as the Constitution or the Moncloa Pacts ” to overcome the high degree of uncertainty in which, in his opinion, we find ourselves because our success to overcome the situation depends on it.

The cycle of meetings “Guadalupe Destino” is part of the activity plan for the following events of exceptional public interest in Guadalupe: the “25th Anniversary of the Declaration of the Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO” and the “Holy Year of Guadalupe 2021”.

The next webinars included in the cycle of meetings “Guadalupe Destino” are:

– “La Botica de Guadalupe y las plantas del nuevo mundo” (“The Chemists’ in Guadalupe and Plants from the New World”), which will be held on 12 November and will count with the participation of the President of the Official College of Pharmacists of Badajoz and member of the Royal National Academy of Pharmacy, Cecilio J. Venegas Fito.

– “Del culto al mito. Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe” (“From Cult to Myth. Our Lady of Guadalupe”), to be held on 26 November and will count with the Professor of History of America at the Complutense University of Madrid, Rosa María Martínez de Codes and the Professor of Literature at the University of Paris VIII, Françoise Crémoux, as panelists.

– “Rutas culturales del Consejo de Europa. Ruta de los Jerónimos” (Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe. The Hieronymite Route), which will take place on 10 December and will count with the participation of the President of the Cooperation Network of the Routes of Charles V, Miguel Ángel Martín Ramos and the head of the Management Unit of the Cooperation Network of the Routes of Charles V, Quintin Correas Domingo.

The meetings are virtual, not only due to the health situation which we find ourselves in, but also in order to offer people from different time zones the possibility to participate. All meetings will start at 17.30 (Madrid UTC+1) and will last an hour and a half.

“Governing Uncertainty” webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XadOIDel5qI&t=1369s