The sociopolitical vision of Paul Elvere DELSART – Toward a participatory global governance.pdf

The wealth generated would be fairly redistributed and reinvested into the local fabric, stimulating employment, rural
entrepreneurship, and community pride.
However, several challenges threaten this model: land speculation in rural areas, disconnection of younger generations,
and the difficulty of initiating the first investment cycles.
On the international stage, Spain would adopt an unprecedented geopolitical stance rooted in civilizational cooperation
and societal diplomacy.
It would become a driving force of the Mediterranean Societal Union — a transboundary space for cultural, ecological,
and intellectual dialogue. In alliance with countries such as Morocco, Tunisia, France, Portugal, and Italy, it would help
build an ethical southern axis, less dominated by the technocratic logic of Brussels.
This diplomacy would offer an alternative to traditional geoeconomic conflicts, leveraging culture, education, and the
environment as tools of peace.
Yet such a course could create friction with European institutions, especially if it challenged neoliberal frameworks,
technocratic centralization, or the norms imposed by the single market.
If Spain fully embraced the EL4DEV program, it would not simply become an “outlier.” It would be the first Western
European nation to commit to a civilizational renewal, combining:
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Re-enchanted rurality,
Pragmatic and poetic ecology,
Secular spirituality and social science,
And international cooperation through people and land.

It would offer an inspiring model for the Global South — particularly North Africa and Latin America — with whom it
shares a complex history but also a profound imaginative legacy.
But this ambition demands:
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A new alliance between rural municipalities, youth, and free-thinking innovators,
A deliberate break from logics of quick profit, territorial exploitation, and cultural alienation.

Spain could then become, not an empire once more, but a gentle light along the Mediterranean paths of the future.

Chapter 6 – Portugal: The quiet awakening of an Atlantic civilizational beacon

Within the ensemble of Mediterranean nations, Portugal stands apart with its human-scale society, rich cultural heritage,
forgotten rural territories, and natural openness to the Atlantic world. This country, long oriented toward the sea, now
finds itself at a crossroads. What if, instead of conforming to dominant models, it chose to forge another path — more
ethical, more poetic, more resilient?
The EL4DEV program, spearheaded by Paul Elvere DELSART, could find fertile ground in Portugal to germinate a
political, economic, ecological, and civilizational transition — an open-air laboratory for Southern Europe, connected to
Lusophone Africa and Latin America.
Portugal is a land of villages. Hundreds of small municipalities dot its mountainous North, the central plateaus, and the
plains of the Alentejo. Many of these areas are marked by poverty, isolation, demographic aging, and at times,
administrative neglect.