The Diplomat
The plenary session of the Congress approved yesterday two motions of the PP in which, on the one hand, condemns the invasion of Ukraine and calls for more military aid to the country (this point was rejected by Unidas Podemos) and, on the other hand, condemns the “very serious violation of human rights in Iran”.
Regarding the motion on Ukraine, the Lower House voted in favor of six of the eight points of the proposal of the Popular Group and rejected the other two, in which the Government was urged to include a specific item for sending military material to Ukraine in the General Budgets and to guarantee in the same Budgets an increase of 2% of the GDP for Defense spending. These two points were rejected by the PSOE and Unidas Podemos, partners in the coalition Government.
During the debate, Ana María Botella, of the PSOE, reminded the PP that the President, Pedro Sánchez, has already committed to NATO to increase defense spending to two percent of GDP and asked the Popular Party to support the next budgets, in which this increase will be included.
On the other hand, PP and PSOE did vote in favor of the rest of the points, which condemned the invasion of Ukraine and the mobilization recently announced by President Vladimir Putin, urged the Executive to appear before Congress to address the consequences of this measure, supported an increase in military support to Ukraine (especially artillery material), it is urged to accelerate the signing of the Treaty with the United States to extend the use of the Rota base and the Government is asked to include among the objectives of the Spanish Presidency of the EU the adaptation of the community regulations to speed up the incorporation of Ukraine to the Union. UNO Podemos voted against these proposals of the motion.
On the other hand, the Congress yesterday condemned the “very serious violation of human rights in Iran, especially of women, homosexuals and minorities”, as well as the death in police custody of the young Masha Amini and Hadis Najafi and the subsequent repression of the Iranian regime against demonstrators. The institutional declaration, promoted and agreed throughout this week by the PP, was approved unanimously and was applauded by all the deputies standing at the end of its reading.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, condemned last Wednesday the death of Mahsa Amini and the repression of the demonstrations in Iran, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Iranian ambassador in Madrid, Hassan Ghashghavi, to convey his protest for the same reason. Both measures took place hours after the Executive officially pronounced itself on these events, more than ten days late.
