Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-25-Speech-2-081"
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"en.20051025.14.2-081"2
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"Mr President of the Republic of Chile, Presidents of the Chilean Congress and Senate, ladies and gentlemen, it is our privilege today to receive the President of the Republic of Chile, don Ricardo Lagos Escobar, who is accompanied also by the Presidents of the two Chilean parliamentary houses.
Finally, in March 2000, he was elected President of the Republic of Chile, a country which, back in 1812, at the dawn of its independence, drew up its Provisional Constitutional Regulation, which read:
Apply these words to Ceuta, to Melilla or to Lampedusa, and we can see what a horrendous situation we have in Europe at the moment.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in the Aymara language, Chile means ‘the place where the world ends’ and sure enough, at the border of the Bio-Bio river, the world ended, because the Spanish conquest came to an end there in the face of fierce Araucanian resistance. Today, however, Chile is fully integrated into the world, an open, dynamic and democratic country that has signed the most complete association agreement that the European Union has ever signed with any other country not aspiring to join the Union.
Since then, Chilean exports into the Union have increased by 35% and globally our exchanges have multiplied practically by three. That demonstrates the mutual benefit we derive from our association.
On welcoming you, Mr President, I would like to acknowledge that it is a privilege for this Parliament that you have wanted to come here, when you are about to end your presidential term; a term, incidentally, that you are ending with a public approval rating of over 65%, which is remarkably positive, not only in Latin America, but also in Europe.
Please believe me, therefore, Mr President, that we are all very happy to hear from you the lessons we can learn from Chile’s great journey towards democracy.
Don Ricardo Lagos is an exceptionally important person on the Latin American political scene.
Mr President, please allow me, on behalf of the European Parliament, to welcome you most warmly.
When Ricardo Lagos was 45 years old, he left a quiet and comfortable life in the United Nations to rent a small office in Santiago de Chile and to begin to work for democracy in his country, which was then in the grip of a military dictatorship. He worked, he fought and he travelled throughout Chile; he was arrested, but he went back to fighting to put an end to General Pinochet’s regime.
He has worked tirelessly to repeal the authoritarian aspects of a Constitution signed by a dictator, and a month ago he succeeded in reforming that Constitution, which has now been signed by a democratic president.
In the collective memory of the Chileans and of all of the world’s democrats, it is with emotion that we remember the image of Ricardo Lagos on a television programme that has made history, looking at the camera and pointing his finger, confronting Pinochet and opening up the path that would lead millions of Chileans to vote ‘no’ in the 1988 referendum, through which Pinochet hoped to remain in power. I believe that that is the most symbolic image of Chile’s transition to democratic openness.
Through his faith in Chile and in democracy, he supported a Christian Democrat, Patricio Aylwin, as President of Chile, and in that government he was Minister for Education and carried out an in-depth reform of education in his country.
It was then with another Christian Democrat, President Frei, who had previously been his opponent in the presidential elections, that he was Minister for Public Works; this is a good example of cooperation amongst Christian Democrats and Socialists, at a time when the country needed it in order to achieve the transition towards democracy. It was then that I had the opportunity to meet him: he, Minister for Public Works in his country, and I in mine. Under your guidance, my dear friend, I began to get to know your wonderful country, from the volcanic deserts of the north to the alpine landscapes of the south, and to the southernmost parts of the country."@en1
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"‘All free inhabitants of Chile shall have equal rights (...). The foreigner shall cease to be so if they are valuable; and all unfortunates seeking asylum in our territory shall receive our hospitality and assistance. Nobody shall be prevented from coming to the country, or from leaving with their property when they wish’."1
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