The Diplomat
The Congress yesterday approved the extraordinary appearance of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, to explain the Government’s position on the crisis in Afghanistan and the evacuation operation carried out, but ruled out that of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
Albares’ appearance, which will take place next Monday or Tuesday, will be the first since he took office on 10 July, and had been requested by the PP, as had that of the president. The minister’s presence was unanimously supported, while Sánchez’s was rejected with 35 votes against, 29 in favour and three abstentions.
During his explanatory statement, the deputy spokesperson for the PP in the Foreign Affairs Committee, Pablo Hispán, called for Sánchez’s presence, asking him “not to hide” behind his foreign minister, given that other leaders have already attended their respective parliaments, such as the British Boris Johnson or the German Angela Merkel, or have spoken publicly, such as the American Joe Biden or the French Emmanuel Macron.
Hispan criticised the government for the fact that, after Biden announced in July that the withdrawal from Afghanistan would be completed on 31 August and that it was known that the Taliban would eventually regain control, Sánchez and Albares “went on holiday” and before doing so they approved the dismissal of the ambassador in Kabul, Gabriel Ferrán, who in the end remained in his post given the situation and is in charge of the evacuation operation.
For his part, the PSOE spokesman, Héctor Gómez Hernández, criticised the PP, “a party of government”, for turning foreign policy “into a weapon of war”, especially on an issue such as Afghanistan, and reproached them for wanting to “give lessons” when they do not make any concrete proposals. “They are making a policy of torpedoing the government”, he said.
