FAES Analysis Group
In his parliamentary intervention on April 19, Pedro Sanchez, in addition to affirming that Morocco is “our gateway to Africa”, which raises the question of the geographical location of parts of Spain’s national territory, drew attention to a true fact: Putin has gone as far as the invasion of Ukraine after many years of concessions and mistakes punctuated by tragic events.
The problem for Sanchez is that these declarations make his party’s colors stand out. What we are experiencing today in Ukraine has long-standing causes, certainly, and one of them, especially important, is the irresponsible game that some people decided to play with Mr. Putin a few years ago. Among them, and very prominently, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
It is worth remembering the Paris photo of March 2005 in which Chirac, Schröder and Zapatero consummated the European fracture they had sponsored and laughed at Putin, who saw in them his opportunity to divide and weaken Europe: abandonment of the Treaty of Nice and the Stability Pact, and weakening of the Atlantic Alliance. And Putin seized it. He has been doing it since then by all the means at his disposal. Also in Spain, especially in Catalonia, as the European Parliament has already proved.
The photo of that Europe surrendered to Putin created the dependence that we now pay for, and he did it in a big way, invoking nothing less than a “common destiny for Europe and Russia”. “The Paris-Berlin-Madrid axis lays the groundwork for establishing a ‘community of destiny’ with Moscow,” headlined El Pais, quoting Chirac’s expression on behalf of the trio. Only, in reality, that axis was not with Madrid, it was with Ferraz.
What Sanchez now says about Ukraine is a retraction of Spanish socialism, but it must be worrying, and very worrying, that Zapatero, whose friendships are extremely dangerous and whose ideas are extremely destructive, is once again occupying a relevant role. No one has weakened Spain abroad as much as he has. Today’s Putin brings about that Moscow-Berlin-Paris-Ferraz axis picture.
It is not possible to talk about Ukraine and Putin in the terms in which Sánchez does and at the same time recover Zapatero as a socialist reference. Either Putin’s threat is taken seriously or Zapatero is taken seriously, but both things at the same time cannot be. If Ukraine enters the agenda, Zapatero has to get out of it. Whoever fights Putin over Ukraine cannot share the stage with Zapatero. It is as simple as that. The rest, as so many times, is lying to the Spaniards.
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