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King Felipe VI has highlighted “what an honor” it is to speak from the podium of the Princess of Asturias Awards, which celebrates its 45th edition this Friday at the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo. And he announced: “It is up to me—I believe—to give this space now” to Princess Leonor. Shortly before, the princess defended in her speech “freedom against fear”, “justice against arbitrariness” and “democracy against intolerance”. After collecting the award for International Cooperation, the former president of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi highlighted that “building Europe” has been a central mission of his career and maintained: “The world has changed and Europe is striving to respond.” For his part, the writer Eduardo Mendoza, Princess of Asturias of Literature 2025, has stated that “cities, like novels, belong to everyone and belong to no one” after thanking his hometown, Barcelona, for the background with which he filled his novels; while the philosopher Byung-Chul Han, awarded the Communication and Humanities Prize, has asserted: “We are like the servant who snatches the whip from his master and whips himself to be free.”