The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterresaffirmed this Tuesday that the international financial system is “deeply unfair and dysfunctional” because, far from advancing towards equality, it has contributed to increasing the gap between poor and rich countries.
Guterres criticized the current financial model in a speech after receiving the Carlos V Award, which was presented to him by the King of Spain, Felipe VI, at the Yuste Monastery (Cáceres, western Spain), coinciding with Europe Day.
In the opinion of the former Portuguese Prime Minister, the pandemic and recovery have highlighted “the scandalous existing fractures” in the world, that “far from diminishing, many injustices are increasing”.
“The accumulation of wealth It borders on the obscene (…) The differences between developed and developing countries, between the North and the South, are widening at times, driven by a deeply unfair and dysfunctional international financial system”, denounced the Secretary General.
He recalled that since 2020, one percent of the population it has accounted for almost two thirds of the new wealth created in the world.
Guterres emphasized that the poorest countries are “suffocated” by debt and rising prices, while the richest have been able to invest in a strong economic recovery.
This division economic and social, he warned, “runs the risk of producing political fractures” and represents “a threat to peace, both locally and globally.”
“He growth The economy must be put at the service of the general social welfare and generate more egalitarian societies. We urgently need to build a new social contract based on social justice”, stressed the Portuguese politician.
In his plea to end the conflicts war in various parts of the world, including the war in Ukraine, Guterres concluded that “there can be no lasting peace without solidarity.”
Thus, he advocated placing the equality at the center of international political debate.
The event was also attended by the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the Prime Minister, António Costa; the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, and the Spanish Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, among others, as well as some twenty ambassadors from EU and Ibero-American countries.
Established by the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation (FAEY), this award recognizes outstanding personalities, initiatives, institutions and projects for their commitment to the European Union or for their contribution to the enhancement of the cultural, scientific or historical values of Europe.
Carlos I of Spain and V of Germany was Holy Roman Emperor; he was born in Ghent (1500) and died in Yuste (1558).