The Ukrainian war passes through the Baltic Sea. September 2022: underwater blasting of the Nord Stream gas pipelines near an island under Danish sovereignty. April 2024: destruction of a Russian military ship in the port of Kaliningrad, the former Prussian Königsberg, birthplace of the philosopher Immanuel Kant. It is the war of the two seas: the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. Kaliningrad and Odessa define a vital geographical arc for most European countries. The Pyrenean barrier prevents it from being seen clearly from Spain.
The Congress of Deputies yesterday debated the three main theaters of war in the world – Ukraine, the Middle East and the Sahel –, with the Pyrenean barrier in place and with very heated feelings. Below the Pyrenees, feelings, a fundamental tool in the political struggle, are projected much better on the tortured Gaza Strip.
The massacre in Gaza provokes majority rejection in Spain and calls for a broad coalition of humanitarian sentiments. The war in Ukraine, on the other hand, causes great discomfort and invites talk of increased military spending. The General Staff of the European Union, one of the embryos of the future European army, has just warned that “military mobility” must be one of the priorities of transport policy, starting with railways. Barcelona is today the only port on the Iberian Peninsula from which direct military convoys could be sent to the Eastern Front by rail, since there is a European gauge connection. Barcelona is today a port of high interest for NATO. Here is a fact to take into account for the next Catalan elections.
International politics is the only path that Pedro Sánchez has today available to try to get out of the crater caused by the Koldo case, by the erosion of the Amnesty law and by the growing social unrest due to the saturation of verbal violence in public debate, tactics obsessive action of the Popular Party, now supported by the PSOE, so as not to appear weak. Surely a mistake by the socialists.
Sánchez has put himself in charge of the European countries most critical of the Government of Israel, with the tacit consent of the United States, which has not wanted to criticize the significant Spanish absence in naval deployments in the Red Sea to safeguard the Suez route. Spain champions the recognition of the Palestinian State, an initiative that will surely be made public before the European elections in June, in which Josep Borrell could once again head the PSOE list. This recognition has a lot of social support, and the Popular Party knows it. Alberto Núñez Feijóo knows that at this point he cannot side with José María Aznar, who is more enthusiastic about Likud than the Jewish people. Feijóo positioned himself very cautiously yesterday in the Palestinian camp, without a single criticism of Israel. Isabel Díaz Ayuso did not take long to contradict him, reciting by heart the Aznarian theory that now is the time for the stick. He is more interested in Likud, an emblem of an authoritarian right, than in the complexities of Israel.
Sánchez knows that rearmament can sink his legislature and these weeks he avoids the militaristic language of other EU leaders. He lowers his tone, but listens to the dominant message. He knows what Brussels’ mandate is, and yesterday he stated from the Congress rostrum, without half measures, that more should be spent on defense. That will be the key chapter of the 2025 general state budgets, which will begin to be discussed next fall with the results of the current electoral gymkhana on the table. That will be the decisive moment. Feijóo is silent, looks, hammers and observes Junts carefully.
(Brilliant debut by Íñigo Errejón as parliamentary spokesperson for Sumar. Pablo Iglesias and Errejón were the two best heads of the first Podemos. Ben-Hur and Messala, a fight that will make an epoch. A fight that has not yet ended).
