The Diplomat
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and three other EU prime ministers (Belgium’s Alexander de Croo, Ireland’s Leo Varadkar and Malta’s Robert Abela) yesterday sent a letter to European Council President Charles Michel calling for a “serious debate” at next week’s European Council with the aim of agreeing “a clear and common position” of EU-27 on the Gaza conflict.
Reiterating their condemnation of Hamas attacks on Israeli territory and insisting that Israel has the right to defend itself “within international and humanitarian law”, the four leaders call on the EU to “go further”.
The prime ministers want the EU to adopt three positions: the first is to call for a “durable” humanitarian ceasefire that “can lead to an end to hostilities”. The second is to “take immediate and effective measures to protect innocent civilians”. The third is to “open a political process to materialise the two-state solution” and “provide adequate financial and political support to the Palestinian Authority to take control of Gaza”.
Both Sánchez and his Belgian and Irish colleagues provoked protests a few weeks ago from the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu for their positions in the war with Hamas, in the case of the President of the Spanish Government and Alexander de Croo for his statements critical of Israel in the Rafah border crossing and in that of Leo Varadkar, for referring to the release of a woman of dual Irish and Israeli nationality, saying that she was missing, instead of kidnapped.
Meeting with Olaf Scholz
The reform of fiscal rules and the Migration and Asylum Pact were two of the key issues on the European agenda that the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, discussed during their meeting yesterday in Berlin.
After the meeting, Sánchez stated on his social network account X that significant progress is being made on these issues during the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The head of the Spanish Government added that “Germany is a key partner for Spain at bilateral, European and international level to continue improving the lives of our fellow citizens”.
After meeting with the German Chancellor, Sánchez spoke at the Congress of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), which was held in Berlin, as part of the ‘Social Democratic responses to a troubled world’.
In his speech, the Spanish Prime Minister said that Europe is facing “an existential dilemma”, which he identified as being an example of progress or allowing itself to be carried away by the hatred of the extreme right.
Sánchez insisted on blaming right-wing parties for allowing themselves to be influenced by the extreme right and being imbued with the “virus of hatred”, which in his opinion could be “lethal for democracy”.
According to Sánchez, there is currently a global battle between democratic respect and the populist insult of extremists. That is why he stressed that “we need a united and open Europe, with a vision for the future and that does not kneel before the elites”.
In his speech, clearly alluding to the proximity of the 2024 European elections, he took the opportunity to vindicate the principles of social democracy in the face of a “complex and uncertain” future: “We are here to promote a future with more social justice, with more rights and freedoms, and with more democracy”.
