Civil Society Award 2019| Miguel Ángel Belloso
The Board of Civismo decided to grant Miguel Ángel Belloso the 2019 Civil Society Award for his constant defence of freedom throughout his outstanding career in the media. His invaluable role was recognised as a committed journalist, who has independently promoted, from a solid and courageous point of view, the postulates of an economic model in which personal freedom and private initiative prevail, as a way of fostering the prosperity and dynamism of society.
The President of Civismo, Julio Pomés, stated that Miguel Ángel Belloso “has fought all his life for the ideas of freedom, and that is the reason why he has become worthy of this award”. Indeed, Belloso confirmed his commitment to such «unfortunately minority-held ideas in Spain, but unbeatable”. He went back to his time in the newspaper Expansión, where he promoted, as head of opinion, the defence of “an adult individual, responsible and free from the harmful crutch of the State, as well as of an open society and the free market”. Thus, he added, “we, liberals, are convinced that the ‘invisible hand’ of the market performs better in terms of progress than any Lenin-like agent”.
«The ideas of freedom are minority-held in Spain, but unbeatable»
Miguel Ángel Belloso
On the other hand, he said that “although the empirical evidence shows that the reason is on the side the liberals and that they have won many battles, perhaps they are currently losing the war”. A defeat that he blamed on the rise of populism and the “implacable dictatorship of the politically correct, embodied in causes such as feminism, environmentalism, animalism…”. For this reason, he underlined the need to “instil new power into classical liberal thought, which institutions like Civismo defend” and with which he ensures that he remains firmly committed.
The person in charge of the laudatio was the secretary of Civismo’s board, Francisco Cabrillo, who referred to Belloso as “a real liberal, enemy of political correctness, although these are not good times for those ideas, since States and governments want to protect us and control our life, that they assess whether what we think is compatible with the official doctrine, and the group wants to be above the person”. For this reason, he defended the importance of having people like he who was the award-winning: “The Board of Civismo has decided to award him this Civil Society Award for the way in which he has carried out his brilliant professional career, with an almost heroic courage and a vocation to go against the tide. Something that he has not renounced to over time”.
Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros, a member of Civismo’s Advisory Council, quoted Valle-Inclán to denounce that, in Spain, intelligence and wisdom are always undervalued. “But with this award, instead, we are going to recognise the merit, the value, the commitment of Miguel Ángel with freedom; a unique, non-divisive, non-chunking value. He who believes in it, believes in political and economic freedom … freedom at all levels, which our award-winning has always defended, even in adverse circumstances”, he concluded.
This award has been previously given to Mario Vargas Llosa, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, José Piñera, Carlos Herrera, Albert Boadella and Esperanza Aguirre.