The Diplomat
The new ministers for Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy, and for Children and Youth, Sira Rego, both of whom belong to the Sumar quota in Pedro Sánchez’s government, made their debut yesterday with denunciations of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Both took advantage of their speeches on taking charge of their respective portfolios to launch their criticisms of Israel, following the line maintained by the party led by the Second Vice-President of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, since the bloody attack by Hamas against the Israeli population on 7 October and the subsequent military response by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Pablo Bustinduy, who was secretary for International Relations and spokesperson for Podemos in the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee between 2016 and 2019, expressly stated that he did not want to miss his first speech as minister to denounce the “barbarity” in Gaza and call for it to “stop immediately”.
The new minister said that “reactionary political forces are advancing in more and more countries” and that “the world is becoming crueler, more unequal, more unjust and confused”. And he pointed to “Russian aggression in Ukraine, the growing belligerence between the United States and China, and what happened this weekend in Argentina” as examples of this drift.
Bustinduy denounced “the unbearable atrocities that the State of Israel continues to commit in Gaza” and stated: “I want my first speech as a member of the Spanish government to serve to join in the demand that this barbarity be stopped immediately and that those responsible be brought to account before an international tribunal”.
For her part, the Minister for Children and Youth said that “it is essential to understand that right now the elements of poverty, vulnerability and exclusion are affecting children the most”. And she added, without mentioning Israel: “We see it on an international level, including what is happening in Palestine, with the child population massacred in Gaza, and therefore it is essential that the public authorities demand a happy, dignified childhood”.
Sira Rego, whose father is Palestinian, posted a message on her social network account X on 7 October in which she pointed out that “Palestine has the right to resist after decades of occupation, apartheid and exile”, but without any reference to the attacks perpetrated that same day by Hamas terrorists.
Rego and now Minister Ernest Urtasun, who has taken over the Culture portfolio, were two of the 21 MEPs who voted in Parliament against condemning the Hamas massacre.
The criticism of Israel by the most left-wing of the coalition government formed by Pedro Sánchez comes on the eve of a tour that will take him to meet the country’s president, Isaac Herzog, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. Sánchez, who is also travelling in his capacity as rotating President of the European Council and accompanied by the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander de Croo, who will succeed him in the post, will travel to Cairo on Friday, where he will meet with the President of Egypt, Abdelfattah Al Sisi, and with the Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
