Albares accuses Feijóo of not being “up to the task” after meeting with Sánchez

Eduardo González Foreign Affairs Minister José Manuel Albares denounced this Tuesday that the statements made by the leader of the People's Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, after his meeting with President of the Goverment Pedro Sánchez to discuss Ukraine and the increase in defense spending, demonstrate that he "is not up to the task." "Mr. Feijóo had a 45-minute conversation" in which "I am sure he received all the necessary information to maintain the dialogue," Albares declared during a press conference at the Moncloa Palace to discuss Pedro Sánchez's round of talks with the parliamentary groups. According to the minister, Feijóo's remarks to the press after his meeting with Sánchez demonstrate that he "is not up to the task." "These are times when Spain needs a state opposition, not an opposition that undermines the government," he warned. “He shares the analysis that the president has conveyed to him of the situation, and what I don't understand is why he isn't part of the solution, and hasn't wanted to be,” he continued. “He has preferred to delve into issues of attrition and opposition to the government instead of being a state opposition,” he lamented. “These are times that require unity, and if we are achieving that unity among all Europeans, including many governments that are part of the European People's Party family—the President of the European Commission (Ursula von der Leyen) is one of them—I don't understand why Mr. Feijóo couldn't join the position that all Europeans need right now,” he added. In the press conference following the meeting at Moncloa Palace, Feijóo asserted that Pedro Sánchez hadn't given him any details and had shown him that the government “has no plan” to increase military investment. He also stated that the Prime Minister had not given him "any answers" to his questions about "whether he is willing to send troops and more weapons to Ukraine" or about "what percentage of GDP" will be allocated to defense spending or "whether the current defense budget will be increased." The PP leader also demanded that any agreements adopted be "endorsed by Congress," because "only Congress has the power to control and approve government spending" and because "there are European parliaments that are already voting yes or no to their prime ministers' proposals." In this regard, Albares clarified that Pedro Sánchez will appear before Congress on March 26 to address these issues and stated, regarding the increase in defense spending, that there is currently a debate within the EU "about what portion corresponds to national budgets" and what portion corresponds to the possible European funding plan. "The quantification of defense spending is done according to the criteria established by NATO, as for the rest of the allies," he added. The minister also clarified that "no one is considering" sending troops to Ukraine and that neither the president of that country, Volodymyr Zelensky, nor the Ukrainian government "are requesting that no one send any type of troops to that war," because "to talk about a hypothetical peacekeeping force, and here we are entering into political fiction, there must first be peace, and unfortunately, at the moment there isn't one."

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