Your Majesties, Your Highnesses,
Speakers of both Houses of the Spanish Parliament,
President of the Constitutional Court,
Ministers,
President of the Regional Government of the Principality of Asturias,
Speaker of the Regional Parliament of the Principality of Asturias, Delegate of the
Government, Mayor of Oviedo and other Authorities,
President of the Princess of Asturias Foundation and Trustees,
Jury Members and Laureates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

José Hierro, María Zambrano, Román Perpiñá Grau, Jesús López Cobos, José López Portillo and Alberto Sols García were the first Prince of Asturias Laureates and that was my first Awards Ceremony. At the time I was only 13 years old and, over the 43 years that have elapsed since then, I have met admirable men and women from near and afar, with magnificent careers and incredible achievements, both individual and collective, who have had an enormous impact on the progress of our societies.

Over these more than four decades –the last 20 years alongside The Queen, and more recently also with Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía– I have had the honour and responsibility of singing the praises of the Laureates at this ceremony.

So, allow me share an intimate thought with you: Understandably, I am thrilled, as both a King and a father, to see that Leonor, as Honorary President of the Foundation, has now taken on this role, as we have just seen.

For me it has been a great privilege and a continuous, exciting and rewarding learning experience. Imagine what it has meant to get to know such extraordinary people like our Laureates in person, to feel that I have grown (in every sense) receiving guidance and examples from their lives and work every year. And I know that this is already the case for you, Leonor, together with your sister. This will increasingly prove to be the case every year.

As time goes by, we will look back on previous years and recall these experiences in Asturias with gratitude and affection: the words, gestures and emotions with which our Laureates mark this modest, yet grand history of our Foundation, from Oviedo and Asturias, for all of Spain, conveying to us their major contributions to humanity.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Every year, this ceremony constitutes a faithful reflection of the Foundation’s goal, of its determination –of our determination– to recognize those individuals and institutions whose work has the capacity to bring progress and hope to so many lives and communities.

I congratulate this year’s Laureates: your names will also go down in history and shine in our collective memory. Your brilliance is measured by the positive impact you have on society, and your works bear proof of this. Thank you for sharing your passion and commitment with us all.

If we had to choose a common denominator between you, a synthesis of all your merits or even the raison d’être for your endeavours, this would boil down to a single idea or concept: the individual.

You all communicate, in a more explicit or more subtle way, some of the facets that make this necessarily multifaceted concept shine: the individual from the perspective of love, beauty, dedication, commitment, compassion, the search for the limits of knowledge or the defence of liberties. In short, you reveal to us those things that makes us great and help us achieve our goals.

In this “globalized” world of great magnitudes and opportunities, among incredible technological advances, dehumanization is a latent risk. Through your example, you Laureates remind us that the individual must always and inevitably be at the centre of any discourse, action or decision, whether in the economic, social, political or artistic sphere. History warns us of the serious consequences of straying from this path. Likewise, history warns us of the serious risks of “polarization”, of the denial of the other for their convictions or beliefs; because they may think, pray or vote differently.

One of our great thinkers, Adela Cortina, says that “the worst punishment that can be inflicted is being condemned to invisibility, ignoring the existence of the other, rejection and contempt.” We are witnessing this now, with the atrocious images of death and desolation that reach us from the Middle East, Ukraine, Africa and other places in the world, ravaged by open conflicts and systematic violations of human rights. These force us to make ceaseless calls for restraint and humanity, and also to denounce and do everything possible to ensure that Peace and Security become compatible, complementary and conducive to living together in harmony, or at least to allow for coexistence.

However, we also see it in more familiar, everyday contexts, such as in any situation of inequality, prejudice or injustice, or in any discourse conditioned by fear or based on indifference or radicalism.

It is therefore the duty not only of institutions, but also of civil society (of citizens), to fight against anything that departs, even in the slightest way, from the all-inclusive respect that we owe to the individual, to all people, to the dignity of all human beings. Our duty also lies in fighting against all that strays from the determination and commitment to continue building societies in which people live together in harmony, maintain a dialogue and work for the common good.

Defending human dignity also means protecting and fostering the system of Rights and Freedoms that safeguards this dignity and underpins our Democracy. Likewise, in the external sphere, it implies strengthening the architecture of Treaties and institutions that sustain the International Community. Multilateralism and cooperation are, without a doubt, our best tools to face the global challenges of our times.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Ultimately, this ceaseless struggle for the dignity of others is the greatest support for our own personal dignity. As Henry David Thoreau put it so well “every man has the task of making his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most beautiful works” and it is, without a doubt, a noble and worthy task to highlight, recognize and celebrate the potential of every human being. For this reason, we are here today at this ceremony to celebrate your potential: the merit that lies within each and every one of you, in both your lives and your work.

Thank you very much.