HAVANA, Cuba.- In assuming the mandate of the people as President of the Councils of State and of Ministers, Miguel Diaz-Canel dedicated his first thought to the historical generation that with humility and consecration accompanies this hour of pressing challenges.

“Cuba hopes that we will be like them, able to victoriously waging all the fighting that awaits us,” he said referring to Army General Raul Castro, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, Commanders of the Revolution Ramiro Valdes and Guillermo Garcia, and other heroes, deputies of this legislature.

He underlined that “more than half a century of slander and treats to the generational rupture and discouragement in the face of difficulties have not been able to overthrow the columns of the temple of our faith.”

An Election Emerging from the People

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said that “with the constitution of the ninth legislature of the Parliament culminates the revolutionary electoral process, starred by the Cuban people, reaffirming their democratic character and at the same time aware of its high historical significance.”

He added that “the people, exercising their citizen right, proposed, nominated, and elected their representatives in the different instances of government according to their identification with them, to merit and capacity, without politics or fraud, corruption or demagoguery.”

Miguel Diaz-Canel also said that “citizens have distinguished humble, hardworking and modest people as their genuine representatives.”

“This is an election emerging from the people, which at the same time will control its management, participating in this way in decision-making and in the implementation of the approved policies,” the Cuban president pointed out.

Commitment to the People and to the Future

The election process concluding today has become forceful victory of the unity of the people and expression of commitment in defending the revolutionary work, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said.

He remarked that there is only one way to correspond the trust the people give them with their vote: acting, creating and working tirelessly to respond to their demands and needs, in permanent and close bond with our humble, generous and noble people.

The Cuban President said that “the most important thing is not how much we look like the country we are, what we cannot forget a second is the commitment we acquire with the people and with the future.”

Diaz Canel said that the deputies, the leadership of the Assembly, the members of the Councils of State and of Ministers have their first raison d’être in the systematic linkage with the population.

Unity, the Most Valuable and Sacred Force

“The mandate given by the people in this legislature is to give continuity to the Revolution, in a historic moment marked by what we achieve to advance in the updating of the economic and social model,” the newly elected President, Miguel Diaz-Canel asserted.

He remarked that he assumes the responsibility “with the conviction that revolutionaries will be faithful to Fidel´s legacy, and to the example, courage and teachings of Raul, the current leader of the revolutionary process.”

Diaz-Canel pointed out that “they, united by blood, ideals and struggle, show at their highest degree the meaning of the word brother,” and emphasized that unity is the most valuable and sacred force in the country.

“It is clear that only the Party, the superior leading force of the society and the State, guarantees the unity of the nation and is the worthy heir to the trust placed by the people in its leaders,” Diaz-Canel said in the session of the Parliament.

Raul, Fidel’s Best Disciple

The newly elected Cuban President, Miguel Diaz Canel, highlighted that “Raul, who has prepared, led and headed this process of generational continuity firmly, without attachment to positions and responsibilities, and with a high sense of duty and historical moment, remains at the forefront of the political vanguard because of his own legitimacy and merit.”

Diaz Canel said that Raul, as the Cuban people calls him affectionately, is the best disciple of Fidel, but he has also brought countless values to revolutionary ethics, partisan work and the improvement of Government.

“The work undertaken under his leadership is colossal,” he declared, “as well as his legacy of resistance to threats and aggressions.”