The Diplomat
The president of the PP, Pablo Casado, has made a trip to Greece and Cyprus, in which he has supported the claims of territorial integrity of these countries and called for European solidarity in the protection of borders in the face of migratory pressure.
Casado has chosen to intensify his international agenda in two countries that have not ceased to be concerned about the recent Spanish-Turkish summit, to the point that the Greek government even summoned the Spanish ambassador in Athens, Enrique Viguera, to ask for explanations after learning that our country could sell another aircraft carrier and a submarine to Turkey.
The PP has clearly aligned itself with Greece in its disputes with Turkey and went so far as to ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, in the Congress of Deputies, about the defence agreements reached with Ankara.
The leader of the Popular Party first travelled to Greece, where on Thursday he held a dinner with the Prime Minister of that country, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of New Democracy.
The two conservative politicians shared the need to promote a common defence, security and migration policy and insisted that EU member states defend their territorial integrity.
The migration issue was also present in the meeting that Casado held yesterday in Larnaca with the President of Cyprus, Nikos Anastasiadis, who, precisely, is scheduled to make a working visit to Spain next Thursday, the 9th, during which he will have lunch with the King and will go to the Moncloa Palace to meet with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
After his meeting with Anastasiadis, Pablo Casado told journalists that there is a shared concern with Cyprus on migration issues, “sometimes used in conflicts such as those we are seeing right now in Belarus, and two EU states are also suffering”.
Casado, who recalled what happened in Ceuta last spring, “probably – he said – with political motivations”, as “is happening now in Poland and some Baltic countries”.
That is what Greece and Cyprus have suffered, and that is what has motivated our joint declarations for European solidarity, but also for measures because these people are often used by mafias on their journey to EU territory,” he said.
The leader of the Popular Party warned that “sometimes third countries use immigration to destabilise national sovereignty”. And he affirmed. “That is why the PP has always been close to Greece and Cyprus in their claims to territorial integrity, just as they have been close to Spain when there have been pro-independence challenges within our nation”.
“Both Greece, Cyprus and Spain share an agenda of common principles, with a strategic position on migration and also on the territorial integrity of states and economic policy,” he concluded.
