The King warns against “polarization” and “the denial of the other” in the Princess of Asturias | Culture

“In this globalized world of great magnitude and opportunities, among unimaginable technological advances, dehumanization is a latent risk,” he said. King Felipe VI In his speech at the ceremony Princess of Asturias Awardsheld this Friday at the Campoamor theater in Oviedo. The common thread among all the winners in this edition, for the monarch, is the idea that the person has to be at the center of the action. “History warns us of the serious consequences of deviating from that path. As it alerts us to the serious risks of polarization, of the denial of the other for their convictions or beliefs; because he thinks, prays or votes differently.”

To exemplify these serious consequences, he cited the conflicts in Middle EastUkraine, Africa and other places in the world. Places “ravaged by open conflicts and systematic violations of human rights, which force us to an incessant call for containment and humanity; also to denounce and do everything possible so that peace and security are once again compatible, complementary and conducive to coexistence, or at least coexistence,” stated Felipe VI.

And not only in distant places, also in the vicinity: “In any inequality, prejudice or injustice, or in any discourse conditioned by fear or based on indifference or radicality. It is the obligation of institutions and citizens to confront everything that separates us from comprehensive respect for the person, for any person”, from the dignity of the human being.

In the first stages of his speech, the King He recalled his long career at the head of this ceremony, in which he participated for the first time 43 years ago, when he was 13 (the same age at which Princess Leonor gave her first speech). That year, 1981, at the first Prince of Asturias Awards, some of the winners were the writers José Hierro and María Zambrano. For four decades, the last two in the company of Queen Letizia, the King was in charge of praising the winners. “You will understand that I tell you that I see with emotion – from the King and from the father – that Leonor, as Honorary President of the Foundation, is in charge of doing it from now on, as we just saw a moment ago,” Felipe said. VI.

At the beginning of her speech, Princess Leonor highlighted the first verses of a song from the award-winning Serrat: ““On September 10th, when Fred arrived, buy your ticket for the train of hope.” (Around September, before the cold arrives, they buy their ticket for the train of hope), belonging to the song The veremadors (The grape harvesters), a tribute to those who “were forced to leave their home to go harvest far from home.”

He then referred to the merits of the winners. In his opinion, the thread between them was “the emotion of hope.” “It is the feeling that shows us that things can improve, that there is always a crack where the light enters,” said the princess. And he explained his feelings about the winners, praising the response to totalitarianism by the Romanian writer Ana Blandiana, the use of talent in search of a “more just and inclusive” world by the Franco-Iranian cartoonist. Marjane Satrapi or the implementation of cooperation and multilateralism by the Organization of Ibero-American States.

The athlete Carolina Marin He says “I can because I think I can.” “And I assure you that, for those of us who are about to leave adolescence, they are very valuable words,” said the princess. Speaking about the winners in Scientific Research, Leonor encouraged them to work on the prevention of obesity and diabetes. Regarding the Magnum agencyhighlighted his truthful photojournalism in a time when “it is often not easy to understand what is happening.” He confessed to having been mulling over a phrase from Michael Ignatieff: “There are those who use democracy to destroy it.” And, of course, he had words for Serrat, with whose verses he opened the speech. “It is much more than an artistic reference for several generations that it has made happy. “He has also shown his commitment to democracy and tolerance.”

The Princess of Asturias spoke in public for the first time in this same ceremony, in 2019: she was 13 years old. This year, in the first edition of the awards in which she is of age, and when she celebrates a decade as honorary president of the Princess of Asturias Foundation, she has attended her first events alone, without parental accompaniment, and also in Oviedo. In two events, this Thursday, she was named honorary mayor of the city and received the Medal of Asturias, the highest recognition in the region. He had words of affection for the land of his maternal family (“which is very asturianoneyou understand me,” he joked) and a loving memory for his great-grandmother, the Asturian radio journalist Menchu ​​Álvarez, who died in 2021.

At the end of her speech at the ceremony, the Princess of Asturias returned to Serrat: “Fight for what you want and do not despair if something is not right. Today can be a great day and tomorrow too.”