Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, stated yesterday, during his speech at the opening of the sixth Conference of Ambassadors, that the “unprecedented assault on the US Capitol” was an “attack on all the Democrats in the world” by “reactionary populism” and expressed his “firm support” for the future administration of Joe Biden, whose mandate in the White House officially begins tomorrow.
The images of the assault on the Capitol, “the world icon of democracy”, were “shocking but not unexpected, because they illustrate how reactionary populism ends”, Sánchez said to those attending the first Ambassadors’ Conference since 2008, which was held in Casa de América and brought together, either in person or online, a good number of the Spanish ambassadors accredited in the world. The Conference will be closed today by King Philip VI and will be attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, the Deputy Presidents Pablo Iglesias, Nadia Calviño and Teresa Ribera and other government ministers and the Secretaries of State, the Under-Secretary and the Directors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The incidents in Washington on 6 January, he said, reveal that “democracy is exposed to new threats” from “a very dangerous new enemy, which spreads lies on a whole scale, using social networks on an unknown scale; it polarises society and creates an atmosphere of confrontation and division and delegitimises the institutions from within and goes so far as to question the election result when it is unfavourable”.
It is therefore necessary to protect democracy “more than ever” and, in Spanish terms, it is necessary to “strengthen our attachment to the Constitution from beginning to end, not in parts or at times, but at all times”, he warned. “We feel very close to the American people at this complex and difficult time in their history, we convey strong support to the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration and welcome Biden’s initiative to hold the Summit of Democracies. Spain wants to actively contribute to the success of this summit”, he added.
During his speech, Pedro Sánchez reminded the audience that “history and geography place Spain in a privileged position” which allows it to form part, at the same time, of “the Spanish-speaking community and the European Union”. “The intersection of both communities gives Spain the opportunity to play a strategic role, and even more than we have been playing up to now”, he declared to the ambassadors.
In terms of international relations, Pedro Sánchez urged that “a strategic and positive agenda be sought with China” on issues “of common interest, such as the climate emergency”, although without forgetting “the limitations on the exercise of human rights”, and called for a “balance to be struck between the firmness of our principles and our interests and dialogue with Russia”. With respect to Venezuela, the president of the government reiterated his government’s usual positions: “The December elections were neither fair nor free” and Spain wants to “maintain the initiative for a negotiated solution to the crisis”.
The President of the Government also stated that 2021 has to be the “year of great recovery” and warned the ambassadors of the need to “generate confidence and definitively transform Spain with regard to the ecological transition, the digital transformation, territorial and social cohesion and gender equality”, for which the Government has presented a Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan “with the following generations in mind”.
González Laya and Economic Diplomacy
At the same opening ceremony, Arancha González Laya stated that “the Embassies are the way Spain looks and the image of Spain in the world” and that it is up to the ambassadors “to project the portrait of the dynamic, innovative, responsible and supportive country that we want to represent”. For this reason, she warned, “foreign policy requires a constant effort to be present in international forums, with a stable direction and a coherent discourse; it requires long-term planning and also requires political impetus at the highest level”, because “it is a state policy”.
According to the head of diplomacy, Spain’s economic recovery “in the European and international sphere” is a “primordial objective” for the ministry, and she therefore called on the ambassadors to make “a special effort” to support Spanish companies and trade and investment. “Economic diplomacy cannot and must not be just an attractive slogan, it must be a cornerstone of our work”, she said.
“I also ask you to make a renewed effort to keep in touch with public opinion, doing pedagogy when necessary”, she continued. “Communication continues to be a difficult subject in our house, we all know that, largely due to the complexity of our usual field of work, the international scene”, and therefore “we have to reflect, together, to gain closeness, agility and, therefore, presence in the media”.
