Eduardo González
The Prime Minister and Secretary General of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, declared this Saturday, at the closing of the first Global Progressive Mobilization in Barcelona, that “the time of the far-right international and of a right wing surrendered to reactionary principles has come to an end.”
Despite the “horizon fraught with uncertainty” and “the noise of the right-wing lackeys” in the face of the far-right international, he stated in his speech, “the extremists and the right wing aren’t shouting because they’re winning; they’re shouting because they know their time is running out.”
According to Pedro Sánchez, the “languishing right wing” already knows that its inefficient neoliberal orthodoxy died in 2008 with the financial crisis, that its vision of the international order is being “dismantled” by tariffs and illegal wars, and that “its surrender to climate change denial, xenophobia, and the sexism of the far-right international” has been “a mistake” from which it cannot undo.
Therefore, he expressed his conviction that “the time of the far-right international and of a right wing surrendered to reactionary principles has come to an end, and we, with you, are going to usher in a new era of progress.”
“We are going to defend the idea that a better world is possible, and we are going to do it by standing up to those who believe themselves untouchable,” including “the billionaires who exploit people and whose greed knows no bounds; the speculators who gamble with people’s savings and homes; the techno-oligarchs who want to line their pockets at the expense of the health of our democracies and the mental health of our youth,” he declared.
For his part, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warned that democracy “is not a destination, it is a daily construction.” “We must go beyond votes and provide benefits for people’s lives,” he continued. “There is no democracy if women die simply for being women,” he added, by way of example.
Furthermore, Lula da Silva demanded that, within the UN, developed and developing nations be “on equal footing.” The United Nations Security Council was created “to safeguard peace, cordiality, and fraternity, and now we have five warlords who prevent things from happening with their vetoes,” denounced Lula, who called on the United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom to “convene a meeting and stop this madness of wars. The world can’t take it anymore.”
The president of the Party of European Socialists (PES), Stefan Löfven, stated that progressives raise “a fundamental issue: equality: between nations, between cultures, between people regardless of their origin, ethnicity, or gender.” “As progressives, this is the foundation of everything we do. This is what unites us. And to those who seek to divide us: They shall not pass!” he added.
For his part, US Democratic Senator Chris Murphy thanked Pedro Sánchez “because he has shown the world how to deal with bullies” and affirmed that the Donald Trump administration is the “most corrupt” in US history. Likewise, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz denounced the United States for having “a concentration of power and a paramilitary force terrorizing our populations,” with “a president willing to shoot anyone and wage war without threats: that is fascism, or at least a fascist sympathizer.” “Don’t count us out,” he added, “many of us believe that humanity should come first, not America first.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa denounced the United Nations, stating that “it has become an organization where truth is lacking because those who sit on the Security Council are the ones who continue to violate all the rights and all the laws that this institution has approved.”
Ministers
Several Socialist ministers from the Spanish government spoke at the panels on Saturday morning. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares warned that the current world order is “the only one that can guarantee future stability and prosperity” in the face of “the chaos of war.” Third Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen, stated that security is linked to the green agenda because the wars in Ukraine and Iran are “fossil wars.”
For her part, the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration, Elma Saiz, stressed the need for everyone to combat hate speech, racism, and xenophobia, and emphasized that the Spanish government’s migration policy is based on empathy, solidarity, and citizens’ rights.
The Ministers of Finance, Arcadi España, and for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, Óscar López, explained that the Spanish government is demonstrating that it is possible to fight inequality by creating wealth. “The government is breaking with the ineffective economic orthodoxy of neoliberalism.” For his part, the Minister of Justice and of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, supported regulation of technologies “based on multilateralism that guarantees that networks participate in the democratic system without interference or bias.”
