Fundación Ideas para el progreso

“IDEAS is a beautiful word, but it is also an acronym whose letters stand for the five concepts which represent our credo”.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, President of Spain

• I, for Igualdad, (Equality) because the IDEAS Foundation is a force dedicated to ensuring that no person shall be in the shadow of another, made uop of decent people who shall not give way to discrimination.
• D, for Derechos, (Rights) because the IDEAS Foundation strives guarantee rights to all citizens.
• E, for Ecología; (Environmentalism) because mankind can not continue to impoverish the planet without jeopardizing its own survival.
• A, for Acción, (Action) because the IDEAS Foundation is a catalyst for change and transformation “which dreams of the future while governing in the present”.
• S, for Solidaridad, (Solidarity) because in times of plenty the IDEAS extends rights and in spite of Foundation difficulties “protects the most vulnerable”.

The IDEAS Foundation for Progress was created during the 37th Federal Congress of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) in 2008 to establish a “think-tank with the capacity to bring novel progressive ideas to the arena of political and social debate in an ever changing world.” Its mission is to identify challenges and opportunities and offer innovative and imaginative solutions that are at the same time rigorous from a scientific point of view and politically deliverable.

One of the most important tasks facing any political party, and more so for parties on the left, is to continuously come up with fresh ideas. Renewal is essential to all human projects but if we are referring to a political project this need becomes even more pressing and is intrinsic to its survival. The challenges we face now are not the same as those of just five years ago, and any political project which stays entrenched in the past and lacks the capacity to propose adequate and imaginative responses to the problems of the time runs the risk of losing the public’s interest.
 
Now more than ever before we must foster renewed progressive thought, which means identifying the most pressing issues currently facing society and understanding their challenges and threats to the mid and long-term future. We must continue to be guided by the same values as always: those of solidarity, a fair and just society, and the fight for equality and freedom. But the measures which translate these values into political action must be constantly renewed. The aim is to establish a prestigious centre of innovative and rigorous thought, capable of offering Spanish society a modern political project.