Last Saturday, Pedro Sánchez established his position regarding the conflict between Israel and Hamas, with a condemnation of the terrorist attacks of this organization and, at the same time, the demand that the right to defense of the Jewish State does not go beyond international humanitarian law in Loop. And with the recognition of the two states, Israel and Palestine, as the only formula to advance in the resolution of this conflict. A position, as highlighted in the Moncloa, aligned in all its terms with that made official yesterday by the European Council regarding the situation in the Middle East.
In this context, the acting president of the Government and leader of the PSOE will take a brief break today in the negotiations with which he tries to articulate a new parliamentary majority for investiture and legislature, to travel to Tirana, the capital of Albania, where he will participate in a summit of European leaders on the Western Balkans, which will also address the situation of the clash between Israel and Hamas.
At the Moncloa they justify the relevance of Sánchez’s presence this Monday at the Tirana summit, where he will coincide with some of the main leaders of the EU and with the leadership of the community club, especially before the meeting of the European Council that will be held tomorrow , by videoconference, to evaluate the conflict in the Middle East.
Sánchez’s unexpected trip today to the capital of Albania forces him to postpone until this Tuesday the meeting he had planned in Ferraz with the members of the PSOE negotiating commission in the investiture process, to begin a phase of intensification of the talks with the representatives of the parliamentary groups.
The Tirana summit is part of the so-called Berlin process, which Moncloa points out was an initiative of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2014, assumed in turn by the European Commission, with the aim of ensuring balance in the Balkans in the long term, as well as transforming the region in accordance with the European perspective by promoting cooperation, good neighborliness and connectivity, and with an eye on its future integration into the EU.
Sánchez, according to Moncloa sources, was invited to participate in this meeting both due to the fact that Spain holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council and due to the importance given to the recent summit of European leaders held in Granada, where the foundations were laid for the future expansion of the community club to countries such as those in the Balkan region.
Both this process, and the complex international scenario, in which the conflict between Israel and Hamas is added to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, led Sánchez to accept the invitation to participate in the Tirana summit. For now, the presence of the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the presidents of the Council and the European Commission, Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, are also confirmed. Other European partners, such as France, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Poland and Slovenia, will also be represented at the event, in which the countries of the Western Balkans – Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia – will participate. of the North–, along with Kosovo and the United Kingdom.
