Very good
morning, my Ukrainian friends.
Welcome to Spain.
Welcome to our University, the National University of Education
Distance Learning.
Our support and our complete solidarity
with the Ukrainian people and with you.
You are very welcome.
My words, apart from the welcome,
is to give you some basic notions basics
very, very basic and very punctual.
about some issues that have to do with
with the territorial structure of our country, of Spain and also
of our political framework, our constitutional framework.
First of all, to tell you that this country
which is Spain, which is in the south of Europe,
is structured as you you can see
in different regions.
Also like in Ukraine.
The regions here
are referred to as autonomous communities.
If you can see this map, you will see that indeed
divided into different colours,
come
distinguished from the different autonomous communities.
The different regions can see south,
just the southern border of Europe,
which is bordering with already, with Africa, with Morocco.
There is the Autonomous Community of Spain, which is Andalusia,
together with Andalusia and other communities,
other regions in Spain, also large and large and important.
You can see Castilla y León.
You can see Aragon and you can see Catalonia.
Also Castilla-La Mancha, which is the identified region
with our language, Spanish, Castilian.
You are at this moment
there, right in the centre, in the Community of Madrid.
The Community of Madrid, like the rest of the communities
of the regions in Spain, have political competences,
and territorial competences.
This means that means that if you
almost certainly, are going to have to be trained
or you're going to require any health health care,
that competence, that responsibility,
you're going to have to send it to your autonomous community.
In this case, if you live in Madrid
you are going to have to demand that right that you have to education,
to healthcare or to their security,
justly to the government of the Community of Madrid.
Each region, as you can see, there are 15 regions, 15
Autonomous Communities with two cities that, you see,
are right there, right there
on the Moroccan coast, which is Ceuta and Melilla.
There are 15 regions in the peninsula
and two autonomous cities in Africa, which are Ceuta and Melilla,
15 plus two=17 autonomous communities or regions.
In Spain
each one of these communities or regions
have their own government
and they exercise their competences.
This means that that the government of the whole nation
has to come to an agreement with each of the governments
in the autonomous communities so that you can receive
those basic competences that you are going to require,
whether it's education, whether it's health or whether it's those areas
that you require housing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
This territorial structure of Spain
is not going to have any limit for you.
This means that to say that, if you're going to be residing
in the Community of Madrid, you are going to be able to move
to any of the communities of the regions of Spain
without any kind of control and in full
freedom and in complete
currency tuning,
language, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
This regional structure, territorial structure, has also
a lot to do with the structure that the European Union has.
Why is that?
Because not only Spain as a country has competition
within the European Union, but also the different regions
also have competences within the European Union.
So, for example, for you are in Madrid right now
or in any of the communities that you are going to reside,
these communities have received European funds
that are going to help so that you can effectively be
considered as European European citizens that you are and also with
plenitude
of respect, of rights and freedoms.
Well, this would be the basic structure territorial structure of Spain.
I insist, 15 autonomous communities
and two cities in Africa, Ceuta and Melilla.
Let's move on to another area which is important,
which is exactly where we are.
The Community of Madrid, the Community of Madrid,
as you see,
has different areas, different different towns, different regions.
Then, therefore, each autonomous community,
in this case the Community of Madrid, where we are,
has also different zones.
You can see that there is a mountain range north,
there is also the basin of the middle Jarama,
the Henares basin,
the southern region, the region of Las Vegas,
the Sierra Oeste,
the Guadarrama basin,
the basin of the Alto Alta del Manzanares
and the Sierra Norte.
The territorial division
internal division of the Community of Madrid is determined by its rivers.
Why?
Because Manzanares is a river, Jarama
is a river, Henares is a river and Guadarrama is a river.
So, therefore, it is the rivers that mark the different
zones within the Community of Madrid.
But, if you notice, right in the centre in the centre is Madrid capital.
Madrid capital which is distinguished as the metropolitan area,
means that the city of Madrid
just coincides with this metropolitan area, 00:07:15.760 --> 00:07:18.240 metropolitan area
where we are at the moment.
We're going to just that metropolitan metropolitan area.
If you look at this city, the city of Madrid, where right now
we find ourselves, it is divided into neighbourhoods, into districts and into zones.
Within the city there are different zones or neighbourhoods.
Most probably,
when you are residing in this capital city in Madrid,
you are going to be able to reside in one of these neighbourhoods.
As you can see in The Chart, the neighbourhoods are identified as
in the number, precisely with the area in which you
can probably live in.
If you're going to live in the most more central,
you will see that the most central area corresponds to Latina
corresponds exactly with the centre of Madrid
and it has a lot to do with ours,
our own, our own historical origins.
The fundamental reference of Madrid as the capital of Spain
dates back to the Arabs, since the year 700 Madrid,
although at different times the capital of Spain was
has gone from Madrid to Toledo and from Toledo to Valladolid.
But, basically, the capital, the origin of Madrid, is
in the year 700 with the Arab occupation Arab occupation; and the structure of its neighbourhoods,
above all what is the centre of Madrid.
All that has to do with what you are going to know
the Puerta del Sol,
the Plaza Mayor,
that area where you can enjoy our monuments
historical monuments, has and it says a lot about the history itself
of the city of Madrid, but above all of the of all the history of Spain.
Surely in our capital,
in our community, the Community of Madrid
and in our country, Spain, you are going to find
as in our house and you are going to find yourselves in our house.
Because you, you who are
who are welcome, who are welcomed, are subjects
who have rights,
but also fundamental freedoms.
The rights and freedoms
that we Spaniards have and that all of you have all of you have as human beings
and as refugees and refugees who are in our country.
All these rights and freedoms and freedoms are contained in
in our Spanish Constitution.
The fundamental legal legal framework that regulates
our relations of coexistence is the Constitution
Spanish Constitution of 1978.
Our country
in 1977, one year before the Constitution,
had the first democratic elections. democratic elections.
It was leaving behind the dark years of the dictatorship
to begin a period of democracy
that will reach its greatest culmination
with the approval of this text, which is the text
and reference of our legal framework and of our coexistence.
It will be your fundamental law
during your stay in our country.
The Spanish Constitution,
which, like all democratic constitutions democratic constitutions, regulates the relationship
between the different powers of the State.
As you know, in front of
what Ukraine is, which is a federated republic,
Spain is a monarchy.
We have a king.
It's a parliamentary monarchy.
Why are we a parliamentary monarchy? are we a parliamentary monarchy?
Because the centre of political power,
of legal power in Spain is
not in the King, it is in the Parliament.
The Spanish Parliament is the one that elects by vote
the President of the Government, who is the head of the Executive.
So, therefore, the basis of political legitimacy in Spain
resides in our Parliament.
Our Parliament is constituted
by different parliamentarians
corresponding to with different political parties
the Popular Party, the Socialist Party,
Podemos, Ciudadanos, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
There's a set of parties that are
that are standing for election.
Spaniards vote for these party lists
and according to the number of votes
that they collect with a proportional proportional distribution system,
the distribution of seats in our Parliament.
This means that to say that this Parliament assembled
is the depositary of national sovereignty sovereignty,
is the one that decides fundamentally our rules
and from there it usually comes out, from the list plus
voted within the parties that make up the Spanish Parliament,
out comes the President of the Government who, I insist,
is appointed, is voted by the Parliament as a whole.
The President of the Government the current one is Pedro Sánchez,
member of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español, is the head of the Executive,
but the head of the Executive
has two heads.
It's a two-headed executive.
Why is that?
Because there's the President of the Government and there's the King.
The President of the Government is the depositary
of national sovereignty.
All rules and laws are presented
by the government or by the parliament.
And the only thing the King does is to endorse the rules,
sign, signatar, the rules.
We could say that our King reigns but does not rule.
The idea of the King is basically to be a harmonising element
of the different political forces.
The most important thing
that you are interested in our Constitution
is that you, as guests and refugees, also
have rights and freedoms that are enshrined in our Constitution.
Let's look at some of them that are important,
obviously, within the set
of the rights and freedoms in our Constitution
there are a series of fundamental rights and fundamental duties
of which of which you are the custodians.
You can not only you can apply for it, but you can
request the obligation of compliance
by the Spanish authorities. authorities.
And it is not necessary for you to be Spanish,
but by the simple fact that you are residents, people
who have rights, human rights,
that are inalienable, have and can apply for
the obligation of the Spanish authorities Spanish authorities to respect them
the right to life, to be respected
the ideological or religious freedom or religious freedom that you may have.
And so the whole
of each and every one of the rights that you see here,
not only ideological freedom, religious, freedom and security,
the right to privacy and the inviolability of the home,
freedom of movement and residence, and so on
the whole set that it would be important for you to know
so that you would be clear what it is that you can apply for
as a right to the Spanish authorities.
Because you are also and are protected
by the Constitution. And not only the Spanish authorities,
our courts of justice
have the obligation to make the Spanish authorities the Spanish authorities
this set of rights of which you are also the of which you are also the custodians.
So, therefore, do not hesitate,
respect and be respected be respected as citizens of the world
that you are, as guests, yes, as residents
and as
residents and exiles that you are at the moment in Spain.
It is important that this framework of rights and freedoms
regulate their daily activities and in Spain,
because a large part of it, of the relationship
that you may have with the Spanish authorities,
either with the authorities of the nation as a whole
or with the authorities of the Autonomous Community of the region
where you are going to live, where you are going to live,
to a large extent, is going to depend on whether or not your living conditions
in Spain are, as is mandatory
and necessary, dignified conditions.
And indeed, our University, the National University of Education
a Distancia, is committed to it.
This set of indications that I I have given you both with the structure
and territorial organisation of Spain as well as with the structure and it works
of our regions and our autonomous and our autonomous communities,
is part of the implication of our institution,
of our University, the UNED, the National University of Education
with the crisis in Ukraine and with the aid and solidarity
with the Ukrainian people.
Come in, you are very welcome and at this university
the UNED has its home.
Thank you very much.