King Felipe of Spain travelled to Galicia to take part in the La Toja Forum and hand out the forum’s prize.
His Majesty arrived in O Grove, Pontevedra, accompanied by the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economics Nadia Calviño and was welcomed by a plethora of authorities that included the President of the Galician Parliament Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and two former Prime Minister, Felipe Gonzales (Socialist Party, who was Prime Minister from 1982 to 1996) and Mariano Rajoy (Popular Party, who was Prime Minister from 2011 to 2018), as well as officials from the La Toja Forum, including its President Josep Piqué.
The La Toja Forum Prize, which saw in 2021 its first edition, was awarded to José Ángel Gurría, who from 2006 to May 2021 was the Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and promote world trade.
Mr Gurría received his prize from the hands of King Felipe, who, following the ceremony, delivered a speech that captured the public’s attention.
In it, His Majesty highlighted the importance of such a forum in which the political debate takes on more moderate tones and is focused on finding common ground and workable solutions to current challenges rather than exacerbating the division and pouring gasoline over the fire of inflamed rhetorics.
King Felipe recognised that the global health situation has given way to more anxiety and more uncertainty, both for the future of the younger generation and for the quality of life of the older one, but has also stated that the shutdown has given reasons to feel hope, because of the heightened sense of community and togetherness.
This is the third year that the La Toja Forum takes place on the island of La Toja, right off the coast of Galicia, and King Felipe has opened the event every year. It gives the political and entrepreneurial world a chance to sit down together and away from the louder noise of traditional political forums to come up with solutions to the most relevant issues of the moment that the entire society can get behind and benefit from.
