The Diplomat
Unidas Podemos, which forms part of Pedro Sánchez’s government, yesterday criticised the NATO summit that the government is organising to be held in Madrid on 29 and 30 June.
The person in charge of criticising the Atlantic Alliance meeting was the state co-spokesperson for Podemos, Isa Serra, who said in an appearance before journalists that Spain has more important challenges than hosting a “militaristic” summit, such as the one planned by NATO in June in Madrid, and that she does not think it is reasonable to devote a significant amount of money to this event in the current crisis.
According to Serra, the Executive, faced with the current situation generated by the war in Ukraine, could do “much more” if it were to host a peace conference, such as the one his party recently organised.
There are many challenges now, such as social rights, equality, the fight against climate change… so we believe that we should host a summit rather than a militaristic summit like this one”, she said.
Asked about the information published by the newspaper ’20 minutos’, about the allocation of 37 million euros for the holding of the summit by the Ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs, Serra said that “it is neither justifiable nor acceptable” when social measures are needed to tackle the current crisis.
Finally, he said that “it is not reasonable” to increase defence spending when it is necessary to reinforce the social shield and public services in the face of this crisis, nor is it acceptable, in terms of taking steps towards peace, to spend money on this NATO summit.
In the same terms, Sira Rego, the state spokesperson for Izquierda Unida, also part of Unidas Podemos, said that “it makes no sense” to allocate neither public expenditure nor public budget to the NATO summit.
Rego recalled that his party is “anti-NATO” and opposed to the Atlantic Alliance, because it considers the organisation to be an “instrument of war”. And he defended the priority of social spending, with more money for health, education, dependency and other services that protect the working class.
After hearing the words of the leaders of Unidas Podemos, the deputy spokesman of the Popular Group in Congress, Pablo Hispán, described as “unacceptable” that a party that governs in coalition with Pedro Sánchez “publicly opposes” the NATO summit.
Hispan criticised the fact that the Executive is once again “divided” and stressed that the position of the purple party is “out of place” and is “a ridiculous and sad question”.
This is not the first time that UN Podemos has come out clearly against NATO, distancing itself from the position of the PSOE, its partner in government.
Thus, on 29 March, Podemos voted, together with ERC and Bildu, in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress of Deputies, against a non-legislative proposal, backed by PSOE and PP, which recognised the contribution of NATO since its creation in 1949, “in defence of democratic values and the values of the West”. The text also praised the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Spain’s entry into the organisation.
