Por Redaccion 
El nuevo president of the Council asks not to consider the consultative function as «unnecessary or superfluous»
The president of the Principality of Asturias, Adrián Barbón, highlighted this Friday in Gijón the «accredited» trajectory of the newly appointed president of the Asturian Consultative Council, Pablo Baquero.
«Pablo, your legal background, your rigor, your experience, support you,» he conveyed during his speech at the inauguration of Barquero as president of the Consultative Council, at an event held at the headquarters of the institution in Gijón.
Barbón especially emphasized the unanimous choice, but also collective within the Council, of Baquero as president of this institution, reviewing his extensive experience. «It is true that at the moment when we have to achieve this type of consensus, I believe it is something strange, almost exotic, I would say,» he added.
«I have no doubt that you will face your responsibility with competence, and I truly say that the Council has made a free but excellent choice,» insisted the regional president, who wished Baquero the same successes as his predecessors.
He also drew attention to the need to reiterate to the citizens the importance of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the Statute of Autonomy of 1981.
In addition, he praised the work carried out by the Constitutive Council over these 20 years as a consultative body for the autonomous community, «with a responsibility that has made it a reference institution characterized by thoughtful and well-founded reflections in political opinions, away from the noise that often accompanies public activity,» he valued.
In fact, he opined that the same discretion that characterizes it is what explains that the work of the Consultative Council is often «little known» by the citizens.
Therefore, he wanted to acknowledge and thank all the people who make the Council possible, acting as guarantors of the administrations and for their service to society by seeking conflict resolution.
Referring to the safeguarding of institutions, Barbón warned about those who, as he is seeing in many parts of the world, «are determined to weaken them to exercise power personally and without limits.»
He entrusted Baquero, therefore, with «an unavoidable responsibility, to further strengthen the Consultative Council as a key piece of the regional institutional architecture.»
INDIVIDUAL CRITERION, JOINT DELIBERATION
Baquero, for his part, highlighted that there can be no higher honor for Asturian jurists than being part of the Consultative Council, for which he thanked the trust placed in him for this task. He also assured that he will dedicate all his capacity and study to this work.
He also emphasized, in addition, that the work of the Council is an individual character of collective expression, in which each one forms their own criterion to then share it in the deliberation of the Plenary, which will result in a common opinion.
Baquero had words for his predecessors in the position, especially for the one who launched and consolidated this Council, Bernardo Fernández.
On the other hand, he pointed out that, after 5,617 opinions approved in 20 years and after 26 years of the reform of the Autonomy Statute in which the article creating this consultative body was introduced, «we can affirm without hesitation that the Council is fully consolidated,» he assured.
«We not only have constitutional and statutory legitimacy, but we also have the legitimacy of exercising our own powers,» added Baquero.
He emphasized, in addition, that this is a legal institution at the service of the Democratic Rule of Law and urged to avoid the «illusion» and simplification that the consultative function is «unnecessary or superfluous.»
Baquero, in the same vein, encouraged overcoming the «inclination to disparage any deliberative process, in this case, the consultative one, as a further guarantee of the rule of law.»
He also made a personal reflection, emphasizing that his generation, born after the promulgation of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, grew up enjoying «the widest range of freedoms that no other generation of Spaniards had ever had.»
«We enjoy an autonomous administration close to the citizen that has been gradually built up to become responsible for providing the most important public services,» added Baquero.
He reiterated that the Consultative Council is responsible for providing «superior advice» to the Administration of the Principality and to the local entities.
However, he made it clear that it is a legal body with full organic and functional autonomy, ensuring an impartial and independent objective criterion. «Our work prevents conflicts and difficulties,» affirmed the president of the Consultative Council.
He also added that they are able to provide advice on complex legal issues through optional consultations.
Something they do, according to him, by restricting their analysis to purely legal matters, unless the consulting authority expressly requests their assessment of the aspects of opportunity and convenience.
On this, he drew attention to the need, sometimes, to address the urgencies of day-to-day life and the challenges that politicians face «in a reality as changing as the one we live in.»
Baquero, however, committed to working «with all responsibility and loyalty» to the consultative function. «We are a small and austere organization, served by excellent professionals who contribute to ensuring that the work of the Council always reaches a good outcome.»
«We unite to ensure that, in this mandate that we are starting today, the Council continues to be useful,» said Baquero, who appealed to the experience of the previous three years in the Consultative Council.