The Free Market Road Show event paid the traditional visit to the Spanish capital of Madrid. With Instituto Juan de Mariana and Fundación Rafael del Pino as local partners, we hosted a great event with a huge level of attendance and great speakers.
The Road Show in Madrid dealt exclusively with the issue of values – which is our main topic for this year’s edition.
Almudena Negro, a Spanish journalist, aimed at the EU. “The European Union has as core value whatever the state dictates.”
“We face a total crisis,” she warned, “of our values and of religion.” For Ms. Negro it is not a coincidence that Classical Liberalism is also going through a deep crisis. “The crisis of Liberalism goes in line with the crisis of religion – because Classical Liberalism is only compatible with Christianity.” She also bashed Brussels because “the EU Constitution project denied the Christian roots of Europe.”
Finally, she explained that nowadays the social democrat consensus is so spread that “there is no room for any classical liberal policies.”
Later was the turn of Eduardo Fernández Luiña. Mr. Luiña is the Head of Research at FAES.
According to Luiña, European classical liberals should focus their efforts in two tasks. On the one hand, they should aim at the reduction of state intervention in the social life. “The state, on the national and supranational levels, has too many functions,” he regretted.
On the other hand, Luiña reached out to classical liberals to “be able to propose public policies capable to sent the European Union back to its pro freedom origins.”
The FAES top researcher concluded that he wishes the EU will become the biggest and freest market in the world but he acknowledges that the current trend is moving towards its supranational aspect.
Last but definitely not least, Víctor Santana, from MEP Daniel Hannan’s staff, criticized the European Union and defended Brexit.
“The EU is not a free trade zone, it is a customs union,” he stated. “We have always been told the integration and the European Union are the only way. Well, Brexit shows us there is another way,” Santana continued.
“Europe is moving towards a supranational kind of governments with unelected and unaccountable officials who are totally detached from the population and cannot be removed,” Santana explosively declared. And he finished with an irony: “Europe’s political union will bring lots of jobs… for politicians.”