ExpoParticipación Somos Extremadura 2010 was closed today in Mérida after travelling almost 6.000km all around Extremadura and having more than 25.000 visitors and participants.

Dolores Pallero, Vice-president and Spokesperson of the Regional Government of Extremadura, showed her satisfaction about the result of this exhibition because it conveys the educational labour of the Marca Extremadura project.

The Vice-president pointed out that ExpoParticipación has toured around the region during the second semester of 2010 in order to spread the “sustainable balance” model amongst the citizens of the region. The exhibition “visited” 50 towns and counted on the cooperation of over 25.000 people who participated in the different activities. All of them left their ideas and testimonials and took part in the auditions for the leading roles of the next campaign of Extremadura.

After travelling 5.800km throughout the whole region, the result is quite satisfactory, according to Pallero who stated that the exhibition intended to be based on the educational intentions of the Marca Extremadura project which being a project from the people and not the institutions needs the cooperation of the society.

The Vice-president was very pleased with the level of participation achieved with this exhibition because Marca Extremadura is a communication project which intends to reposition the image of Extremadura in the national and international contexts since its beginnings in 2006. This intention is based on two main principals: the campaigns from Extremadura and the educational intentions of the project (like the ExpoTren in 2006 that travelled around twenty-one cities in Spain to promote and spread the image of the region).

Dolores Pallero visited the exhibition with the Mayor of Mérida, Ángel Calle, who pointed out “the importance of projects such as this to raise the citizens’ self-esteem and to help us know more about ourselves, our region and thus value what we are”. They congratulated the 24 people who make up the human team of the exhibition and thanked all the citizens (especially those from the rural areas) for their participation and interest.

ExpoParticipación tried to demonstrate how the region has changed its development model in the last 30 years, pledging for a balanced development, supporting the development of the infrastructures, the management of resources and the constant sense of solidarity within its inhabitants under the same participation and cooperation spirit present in all and every citizen of Extremadura.