António Guterres also spoke in his speech about the need to save the planet from climate change, also about development needs and also about the different conflicts that plague different parts of the world, but it was the war in Ukraine that dominated the entire European award ceremony Carlos V this Tuesday in Yuste, in the monastic palace where the monarch who gave his name to the award and who was the most powerful of the time, spent his last days half a millennium ago.
The fact that the ceremony coincides with Europe Day helped to make the theme of Ukraine prevail, as this is the bloodiest conflict on the continent since the end of World War II. And there was even a very emotional moment when Lana Tryhub, a Ukrainian refugee in Spain, told how she woke up one day in a country at war, after last year’s Russian invasion, and felt she didn’t know how to with such a situation, of permanent terror, especially if, like them, you have small daughters. “My story could be a normal story, but it is no longer normal in a normal day, in a normal winter, in a year like many others,” referring to that February 24, 2022 when Russian troops entered Russian territory. Ukrainian.
“We got up at half past five in the morning to the sound of a plane and I thought: the war has started. I couldn’t believe it. My brain couldn’t accept it. The first week was terrible, almost no sleep,” added the Ukrainian refugee, 34 years old, who lives in Badajoz. A shower of applause followed in Yuste, which was not far behind those who received the official speeches.
If it is true that the Carlos V Prize above all values Europeanism, in the case of Guterres, because of his current position, the Jury of the Yuste Foundation also emphasized the commitment to multilateralism and the defense of peace, encouraging both to the Secretary-General of the United Nations to seek a solution that will stop the war, as a condemnation of the Russian invasion, which in one way or another both the King of Spain and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who also spoke manner defined as an act of disrespect for the United Nations Charter.
In addition to the Portuguese president, the famous convent palace of Spanish Extremadura was also attended by Prime Minister António Costa, but in addition to figures such as Josep Borrell, senior EU foreign policy official, the Spanish Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, and many ambassadors, including of Spain in Portugal, Marta Betanzos, and that of Portugal in Madrid, João Mira Gomes.
On the eve of the ceremony, there was a dinner in Yuste with Felipe VI, Guterres, Marcelo and Costa and the war in Ukraine was barely mentioned. In fact, hours earlier, during Guterres’ meeting in Madrid with Pedro Sánchez, president of the Spanish government, the war in Eastern Europe had already been a strong point on the agenda.
Guterres, who sharply criticized Russia for invading the neighboring country from the start, has not stopped trying to mitigate the effects of the war, as evidenced by the agreement, reached with the help of Turkey, for both belligerents to advance through Black to support the export of Ukrainian and Russian grains and fertilizers that are sorely needed for the world’s food security.
But peace talks between Moscow and Kiev could not be announced by the secretary-general in Yuste. And many of those present had already read the interview with the Secretary-General of the United Nations the country in which the caption was “Right now peace in Ukraine is not possible. Both sides believe they can win”. Unintentionally, from Moscow, where the Allied victory over Nazi Germany is celebrated on May 9 each year, President Vladimir Putin accused the West of wanting to destroy Russia and called on the people to unite with “the heroes” who fight on the Ukrainian to win.
In Kiev, where May 9 was traditionally also the Day of Victory over the Nazis, this has changed to May 8, as the Americans and the British do, and is now more Europe Day, because even though Ukraine is not a member of the EU, this Tuesday Ursula Von der Leyen received a visit. Zelensky took the opportunity to thank the President of the European Commission for financial assistance for the purchase of ammunition for artillery. He also believes that he can win this war that has been going on for 15 months.
In Yuste, Guterres insisted in a beautiful speech in Spanish – despite the modesty that led him to announce he would speak in Portuguese – that “instead of bullets we need diplomatic arsenals”.
In a historical allusion to Charles V, who was Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Lord of the Netherlands and King of Spain and his vast domains in the Americas, and through the intermingling of marriages, diplomacy and conquest, began to envision a united Europe Guterres recalled, lamenting that “war is not a thing of the past”, emphasizing that “European values have never been so threatened since the creation of the United Nations and the European Union”.
“We must raise our voice and reaffirm these values. And above all, we need peace,” the United Nations Secretary-General said at the ceremony at the monastery near the town of Cuacos de Yuste.
Founded in 1995, the European Charles V Prize is now in its 16th edition and has included figures such as the Frenchman Jacques Delors, the Russian Mikhail Gorbachev or the German Angela Merkel. Two Portuguese were also decorated before Guterres, Jorge Sampaio and José Manuel Durão Barroso. Interestingly, at the 2014 ceremony when Prince Felipe presented the prize to the then President of the European Commission, the speeches also talked about the crisis in Europe, but it was a financial crisis and a belief in the spirit of European unit, but believed to be overtaken. “Durão says Europe stumbled but didn’t fall,” was the title of the DN report nine years ago. “Only a united Europe can meet the enormous challenges of the present and the future,” Guterres said now. Very similar to what Durão Barroso said at the time. But months later, Russia annexed Crimea and started a separatist uprising in Donbass, with no one predicting that they would spark a full-blown war in the long run.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who switched from Spanish to Portuguese when he summarized Guterres’ life path, called the former Portuguese prime minister “the best of his generation and mine”, emphasizing the humanism of the former president of the International Socialist. Felipe VI, speaking a few sentences of Portuguese, praised Guterres’s “moderation and common sense” and how he puts them at the service of the best values to seek consensus. For a moment, but only for a moment, the theme of Ukraine seemed to disappear. Pure illusion.
For the Yuste Foundation, the United Nations Secretary-General and former Portuguese Prime Minister “has been a fundamental figure in a period of unprecedented change and with dire consequences for Europe and the world”. Guillermo Fernández Vara, President of the Government of Extremadura and also of the jury of the Carlos V Prize, delivered the opening speech of the ceremony, highlighting Guterres’ Europeanism. The latter thanked him for the award and said that he had marveled at the Monastery of São Jerónimo de Yuste when he vacationed in Extremadura many years ago.
Finally, Lana was greeted warmly by several guests. His personal testimony fell well between speeches. For her, Extremadura is not a vacation, it is “a break” in her life, however welcome she feels here.
Source: DN
