Esperanza Aguirre ‏@EsperanzAguirre 19min Ante tanta confusión en la Red, mi discurso de hoy titulado "Spain and Europe: old myths and new realities".

Esperanza Aguirre ‏@EsperanzAguirre 19min Ante tanta confusión en la Red, mi discurso de hoy titulado "Spain and Europe: old myths and new realities". One of Spain’s strengths is the positivedisposition of the immense majority of Spaniards. Inthe midst of our current recession, we get on with the job in hand and remain confident that prosperity willreturn.Since the restoration of democracy and theMonarchy, Spain has become an increasingly opensociety and, as such, open to opportunities. Onecause for optimism is that for the first time in our history many of our qualified young people areworking outside Spain. I am certain that theincreasing number of young Spaniards holding good jobs abroad will have a very positive effect on our economy and on the manner that Spaniards facefuture challenges. And I can’t help adding that what really makesus Spaniards happy and proud and fills us withoptimism is the success of our national football team,which has now for several years been the best in theworld.4 Many of us think that if we are capable of winning in a sport that the whole world plays, surelywe will be able to emerge from the current economiccrisis and once more create more jobs thananywhere else in Europe as occurred during Aznar’spremiership.Dear friends, As you must have noticed I am full of optimismfor Spain despite our problems.Spain was too exotic for its own good over thepast two centuries when it endured countless politicalupheavals. It was a very exciting country for thosewho looked at us from abroad. Too exciting. Andbecause of that it attracted many British travellers,romantic travellers and romantic writers, as TomBurns discussed in his book “Hispanomanía”.5 Since the restoration of democracy in 1977 wehave striven to be less exotic, more normal, moreboring. Charles Powell has written in depth aboutSpain’s peaceful political transition and WilliamChislett has closely studied the growth of theSpanish economy. I think the result has been prettysatisfactory. We will continue on this path althoughwe will be less exotic for colourful British writers andtravellers.Let me finish by making a confession. I am ahuge anglophile and one of things I most envy aboutthe United Kingdom is its university education. Iwould copy it if I could.You have the best university system in the worldand your university is its best exhibit. If Spain had anOxford I would be even more optimistic about our future.Thank you very much and I look forward to our debate on “Old Myths and New Realities”