“Today we are talking about the need for a Europe of security and defence,” he said. “It is a challenge that we must take up in an exercise of responsibility and memory: not against anyone, not against any regime or model, but to defend our own.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the monarch and the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, was each awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Coimbra, in a ceremony presided over by the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
On this occasion, the king of Spain emphasised that “what is at stake is not what Europe has, but what it is.
“How important it is to look ahead with confidence and conviction,” he added. “But it is no less important to do so knowing and understanding our past, learning from what the 20th century represented for Europe.”
Throughout his speech, Felipe emphasised the “precious friendship” between Spain, Portugal and Italy, united as they are by the sea, the law and Europe.
“How important it is, in these confusing times, not to lose the compass of the democratic spirit,” he said. “And how important it is to remember this, precisely here, in this great European university, that nothing would be possible without that necessary value for research and education: freedom.”
After emphasising that these three countries are heirs to Roman law and certify the rule of law, he went on to say that “Europe is the child of Roman law, Greek philosophical thought, the Judeo-Christian tradition and the Enlightenment, as well as the spirit of reconciliation and improvement among Europeans after the devastating world conflicts of the first half of the 20th century.”
Europe, he said, is a house built on consensus and solidarity.
“Its pillars are solid because they were not designed to exclude or separate, but are based on the freedom and equality of its citizens,” he explained. “But they are not unaware of the risks and evils of our time, whether they come from outside or from our own European core.”
