Iberian liberals strengthen network
CDL President Sean O'Curneen and ELDR Vice President Marc Guerrero
In the week-end of 21 March 2010, an interesting conference adressed the situation and future of liberalism on the Iberian peninsula. The event, which took place in the southern Spanish city of Cadiz, was organized by the European Liberal Forum (ELF), in cooperation with the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation (Germany), the Movimiento Liberal Social (Portugal) and the Catalanist and Democrat Foundation from Catalonia.
The conference represented another step forwards in order to increase the political push and strength of liberals in this part of Europe. Moderated by Portuguese liberal Miguel Cunha Duarte, representatives from a great variety of Iberian liberal parties and organizations such as the Liberal Party of Gibraltar, the Liberal Party of Andorra, the Movimiento Liberal Social (Portugal), the Catalanist and Democrat Foundation (Catalonia), Converxencia XXI (Galizia), the Partido de la Libertad Individual, Centro Democrático Liberal and Club Liberal Español (Spain) discussed the current situation of liberalism in the Iberian peninsula and proposed new activities for the upcoming months in order to improve the liberal network, promote political liberalism and liberal ideas to the citizens, and take advantage of the liberal links and the network for upcoming elections.
From these lines, I express my convinction that activities like this one will allow us to achieve our liberal objectives in this region of Europe.
By Dr. Marc Guerrero i Tarragó
ELDR Party Vice-President
Tags: liberalism, Southern Europe
March 24th, 2010 at 13:59
It was a pleasure for the Partido de la Libertad Individual to be present in this meeting. Our Executive Committee member Roald Schoenmakers had an opportunity to discuss with fellow liberals on ways of future cooperation. We do believe there is a space for a strongly liberal political option in Spain. According to the official statistics on February 2009, 12 % of Spaniards consider themselves liberal, although of course a large part of them may associate this political label with non-liberal parties due to a continued misrepresentation of liberalism in Spain. In any case, these stats are highly encouraging. We are glad to cooperate with other liberal parties in Spain which represent more social-liberal or centrist views, while P-Lib wishes to strengthen itself as a deeply liberal party both in terms of our economic policy and in terms of our views on ethics issues and individual rights and public liberties. We welcome fellow liberal parties around Europe and internationally willing to contact us, as we feel we’re part of the same political family. Kindest liberal regards,
Juan Pina
P-Lib president
Madrid
juan@p-lib.es
March 24th, 2010 at 19:26
Liberal International is really proud to have provided a framework for setting up this first meeting of the Iberian liberals in the recent history. Let’s hope that the provided possibility will result in mutual cooperation that will lead towards stronger support for the liberal policies and politicians across the Iberian Peninsula
LI is very much looking forward to foster this process, uniting the forces with ELDR and ELF.
Emil Kirjas
LI Secretary General
March 25th, 2010 at 14:31
The LI event in Cadiz and the meeting bringing together liberals in the Iberian peninsula represent a real milestone for liberalism in South-western Europe. Although the situation and strategies of the different players are different, they are also complementary, and there was unanimity regarding the need for liberal alternatives throughout the whole of the Iberian peninsula. This forms a solid basis for continued cooperation, which CDL very much looks forward to.
¡Hasta pronto!
Sean O’Curneen Cañas
Presidente
Centro Democrático Liberal
http://www.cdl-centro.es