The neighborhood of the peaceful European club, Pedro Sánchez warned yesterday, “is increasingly unstable and conflictive.” The President of the Government drew a threatening geopolitical panorama, during his appearance in Congress, in the face of the “imperialist drift” of Vladimir Putin, which “has already claimed thousands of lives” in Ukraine, and the “absolutely disproportionate” response of Beniamin Netanyahu in Gaza, after the terrorist attack by Hamas, which is generating “one of the most deplorable humanitarian disasters of this century.” And to these two wars is added the powder keg of the Sahel, with “unprecedented instability.”
Sánchez described a worrying panorama, “not to cause alarmism,” he warned, but to set the challenges and priorities of his “European and multilateral” foreign policy. And he defended her role in these conflict scenarios: “Today’s Spain is not satisfied with being a mere international observer, it is a first-rate actor.” The result, he assured, is that “the world is aware of our leadership.”
Sánchez thus defended his geopolitical strategy. First of all, in the face of the conflict in Gaza. “Spain is prepared to recognize the Palestinian State,” proclaimed the head of the Executive, who this afternoon begins a new European tour, through Poland, Norway and Ireland, to add allies to his purpose of promoting the recognition of Palestine as a State before this coming summer. “I will do it because it is fair,” he justified.
And he assured that he was supported, in this initiative, by “a social majority” in Spain. “The international community will not be able to help the Palestinian state if it does not first recognize its existence,” he argued.
Sánchez demanded that the leader of the main opposition party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, establish a clear position on the matter, after former president José María Aznar flatly rejected the proposal. But even though they agree on the position, with the two-state solution – Israel and Palestine – it is not possible for Sánchez and Feijóo to express a common position. The leader of the PP demanded to add a European consensus for the recognition of a viable Palestinian State, but he reproached the President of the Government for “blinding his desire for prominence.” “Abandon the arrogance of believing that a single person can solve the problems that we have pending for 80 years,” Feijóo claimed.
And he reproached Sánchez for his turn in the Sahara: “Isn’t it hypocritical to beat your chest for Palestine while you have left the Sahrawis abandoned?” And he even accused him of “being submissive to living dictators,” in reference to the king of Morocco, Mohamed VI. “Stop using foreign policy as a firewall for your internal problems,” Feijóo demanded, alluding to the Koldo case corruption scandal. “You’re desperate,” he said in her face.
Sánchez defended his determination to recognize the Palestinian State: “I claim the sovereignty of Spain to decide its international policy.” He accused Feijóo of not wanting to amend Aznar’s plan, and reproached the PP for a “destructive opposition” that he portrayed like this: “Nothing and mud.”
Regarding the war in Ukraine, at the gates of Europe, Sánchez defended the need to increase deterrence capabilities, with an increase in defense spending, to preserve scenarios of peace. “In this very delicate international context, to guarantee our security and deter those who do not share our project of peace and democracy, we Europeans will have to strengthen our security and defense industry,” he justified.
“Although Putin has not won the war, he has not lost it either. And there are strong reasons to believe that, if we do not increase our support for Zelensky’s Government, the Ukrainian front could retreat positions this spring,” warned the head of the Executive.
The president, in any case, rejected the warlike rhetoric. “No third world wars, no war economy, no soldiers on the ground,” he said. But he justified that “we need to strengthen our deterrence capacity.” “Not to be feared, nor to drag the world into an arms race, but to be respected and to be able to protect the great project of peace, democracy and freedoms that is Europe,” he said.
In this demand to increase military spending, however, Sánchez clashed with his coalition partner, Sumar, and also with allies such as Podemos or ERC, who agree in their total rejection. Sumar spokesperson, Íñigo Errejón, urged Sánchez to cancel the promise to NATO to raise military spending to 2% of GDP: “That commitment has to be suspended,” he claimed.
“Rearmament does not stop the war, it fuels it,” warned Podemos leader Ione Belarra. And Gabriel Rufián, ERC spokesperson, rejected an “arms escalation.” “Does this world really need more weapons?” he asked.
