These are great days for Spain, and for all Spain's friends among the other democratic states of Europe.
This Congress marks the consolidation of a new democratic party. Our hosts, the party and its leaders, have already done much in presiding, with such skill, over the remarkable changes in Spain during the last few years. There is scarcely a precedent for a peaceful transition from the sort of government which you had until three years ago to the one which you have today. I bring greetings and congratulations to all those who have made this recent transformation possible.
I am sure that the Union de Centro Democratico will continue its work to complete the construction in Spain of a fully free society.
Democracy is the noblest work of art in political life. The establishment of a tyranny is easy enough, but the creation of a democracy is much less simple. It requires the understanding and cooperation of every citizen. It is a form of government in which each person has to exercise his responsibilities, not abdicate them.
Of course, we know that all your problems have not been solved. You began the task of reconstructing democracy at a time of economic crisis. That, however, makes your achievements even more remarkable.
You are menaced by terrorism, and you still encounter problems in trying to work out a lasting and beneficial relationship between all the peoples who contribute to the Spanish nation. [end p1]
But what democracy is ever complete? In our party, and I believe in yours, we know that there is no perfect pattern which will last indefinitely. There can be no finality in politics. The spirit of innovation must always be allowed to breathe. There is always room for modification and improvement. Here we differ absolutely from totalitarians of left or right, who believe that some final blue-print can be found, and should be imposed.
We must remember that full democracy, with its opportunities and pitfalls, is a very modern thing. Even in Britain, where we have been fortunate enough to enjoy an unrivalled continuity, universal adult suffrage is less than fifty years old.
Television, opinion polls and the instant communication of news across the world have transformed our way of looking at politics. In dealing with these modern challenges, Spain will draw strength as we in Britain have done, from the recollection of a great history in which a form of democracy has played a part before. Historians have pronounced that the springs of modern representative government are to be found in the customs of the mediaeval Cortes.
BRITAIN AND SPAIN
Britain and Spain have many common interests and preoccupations.
We continue to draw inspiration from a joint Christian heritage. If in the past our religious differences seemed to divide us, today, faced with the threats of materialism, that heritage draws us together.
Our political creed is based on the sanctity of individual men and women and their right to human dignity. It has nothing in common with those who believe that an all-powerful state should determine ethical values as well as political ones.
Both Spain and Britain are geographically on the edge of Europe, and, perhaps strategically even now, the Pyrenees plays the same role with you as the Channel does with us. [end p2]
The Conservative Party in Britain has long recognised the need to bring back Spain into the European family of free peoples. We are determined that Spain should be welcomed as soon as possible into the European community. How can there be a continent called “Europe” without Spain?
Not only were we once great imperial nations: we both have strong and continuing links with the independent nations of the Americas, who derive from us their languages and many of their traditions. For a long time, we have been in the habit of looking towards the Atlantic. In this generation we are confident we can carry out our creative European policies within the wider Western Alliance.
For both our parties realise that our own nations, like our allies (including those represented here) are faced with unprecedented dangers. These derive from the continuing aggressive and unscrupulous policies of those countries beyond the Iron Curtain whose persecution of their citizens is a foretaste of how others would be treated if their influence were allowed to extend further. [end p3]
At home, we are sometimes asked how it is that the Conservative Party has managed to remain such a constant force within British democratic politics for so long. We are, after all, the oldest party in the world (older even than the Carlist movement) and we expect to return to govern Britain within the next few months.
The explanation of our unique continuity is, I think, that although we constantly maintain the same ideals from one generation to another, we have learned how to apply them to changing circumstances.
As Disraeli said in 1867, at the height of a period of technical invention, “The question is not whether you should resist change which is inevitable, but whether that change should be carried out in deference to the manners, customs, laws and traditions of a people” .
In Britain, now, the principles we have to emphasise especially strongly are three. We believe they are relevant to the whole of the democratic West.
First, democracy means to us something even more than parliamentary sovereignty and the election of governments by a free vote. It means also that we must be governed by the Rule of Law; by a series of rules, that is, devised to ensure that no-one and no institution should be so important as to be above the law.
The law must apply to those who govern in the same way as it applies to those who are governed. No-one should suffer punishment unless he has broken the law and that fact has been established by independent judges in impartial courts. We in Britain are finding it necessary to recall these and other old established truths, when dealing with industrial problems.
The second point which we emphasise strongly is that free enterprise is one of the pillars of a free society. If economic liberty is extinguished, political liberty will not long survive. Nor can a new democracy become established without a healthy private sector. [end p4]
The prior existence here in Spain of a strong system of free enterprise was surely one of the reasons for Spain's successful political transition since 1975.
New newspapers and journals, for example, played I believe a large part in helping the political re-education of the nation. Those new means of communication were made possible by private business acting in the public interest, as private business does far more often than its critics admit.
The third point that we in Britain are emphasising is that we reject any view of politics based on the idea of class. Like the UCD, the Conservatives are a party drawing support from people of all occupations and incomes. A third of British trade unionists voted Conservative in the last election. In the next election, the proportion will probably be higher. Our ideals appeal to all who love liberty, and they are to be found in all sorts of homes.
Our opportunities and problems are not, of course, exactly comparable to yours. Your priorities are not exactly the same as ours.
But your success in re-establishing here the reign of political liberty in a constitutional monarchy is a victory not only for yourself; it is a triumph for the whole western democratic world. A few years ago, democracy seemed to be on the defensive, even in retreat. But now our golden circle of free nations has been widened by the establishment of representative government in Portugal and Greece, as well as in Spain. The creation of a new democracy anywhere would always be a matter for rejoicing. A new democracy in an old nation is, however, a special inspiration.
Europe is the cradle of democracy. But recently the idea of Europe seemed to have lost some of its verve. The extension of freedom in Southern Europe has been the best possible way of giving all of us, and all our political systems, a new self-confidence. [end p5]
Democracy needs many things for it to be successful. Above all, it needs leaders who, in the words of Ortega y Gasset (The Revolt of the Masses 1930), have that radical faith in themselves which impels them to be energetic, daring, and tenacious. Energy to seek new ideas. Daring to reject old ones when they no longer serve a purpose. Tenacity to maintain principles. A political party, for it to serve the nation well, must be a school of such leaders.
I am delighted to have been invited to this splendid Congress. None of my predecessors as Leader of the Conservative Party has ever attended a political Congress in Spain before. In achieving liberty, Spain has made many friends. I am here to show not only that Britain is among those friends; not only that the Conservative Party is among the friends of the UCD; but also to show that the Conservative Party knows that the cause of the democratic West needs Spain.