<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>Podemos has finally announced that it will allow "the validation" of the Royal Decree-Law imposing an arms embargo on Israel because "it is the best way for everyone to see that Spain continues to maintain military relations with Israel" and to avoid "being used as an excuse by the PSOE to do nothing and continue maintaining military relations with Israel."</strong></h4> The vote will take place this Wednesday at 8:00 p.m., after the Lower House Bureau decided to postpone it for one day to avoid it coinciding with October 7, the anniversary of the Hamas attacks. In the debate held on Tuesday, Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo stated that "this decree legally consolidates the arms embargo that this Government has already been implementing." "No controlled material manufactured in Spain will be sold to Israel, and no controlled material manufactured in Israel may enter Spain," he added. The People's Party (PP) has not yet announced its vote, but it is highly likely to be negative. Therefore, Podemos's vote will be crucial for the government's proposal to pass, since if it votes against it, the Royal Decree would receive exactly half of the votes, which, in compliance with the Lower House's regulations, would render the proposal null and void. "Today, a fake embargo is being put to a vote in Congress, at the government's proposal, that does not end Spain's two main contributions to the genocide in Palestine: on the one hand, the purchase and sale of arms and, on the other, the transit of military equipment destined for Israel," declared Ione Belarra, a member of parliament and secretary general of Podemos, in a video released on social media this Wednesday. "This is not only said by Podemos; it is also said by civil society organizations and specialized journalists," she continued. "The decree is a sieve through which Spain's complicity with the genocide perpetrators is filtered, as we have seen throughout this month," she asserted. “The embargo has been in effect this entire month, and during this time, the arms purchase contracts with Israel remain uncancelled; they are publicly posted on the procurement portal, and civil society has already detected four ships carrying military equipment and weapons bound for Israel passing through Spanish ports,” she denounced. “This decree, unfortunately, changes nothing about what the government has been doing for these past two years of genocide: maintaining arms relations with Israel, the most extensive in our history; sending a frigate, the ‘Furor’ frigate, to turn around at the moment the Flotilla needed it most; or delaying today's vote to please the Israeli Embassy,” Belarra stated. “The PSOE is seeking the title due to overwhelming social pressure, but it doesn't dare to act. Despite our repeated demand that they withdraw this Royal Decree and approve a comprehensive and real arms embargo, the PSOE has insisted on forcing a vote in Congress today,” she lamented. “Podemos will continue to demand a total arms embargo and the severing of all relations with Israel, and today we are going to allow the ratification of this Royal Decree precisely because we believe it is the best way for everyone to see that Spain continues to maintain military relations with Israel, and that this is not because of any vote by any group in Parliament, but because the government has implemented a fake embargo,” announced Ione Belarra. “Podemos will not be the PSOE's excuse for doing nothing and continuing to maintain military relations with Israel,” she added. “As we have been doing since November 2023, we are going to give our all in the streets and in the institutions to force Spain to break all its military, economic, technological, cultural, and sporting relations with the genocidaires,” she asserted. Following Belarra's announcement, Ernest Urtasun, Minister of Culture and spokesperson for Sumar (a minority party in Pedro Sánchez's coalition government), expressed his hope that the Royal Decree-Law would gain “the support of all the forces of the parliamentary majority” and warned, along the same lines as other leaders of his group, that “either you stand with Netanyahu or you stand with human rights; either you stand with genocide or you stand for Spain to continue pressing to stop the extremely serious war crimes that are occurring.” <h5><strong>Reyes Rigo</strong></h5> Meanwhile, Podemos has reported that Israeli authorities have extended the detention of Reyes Rigo, the only Spanish activist remaining in Israel (in her case, for allegedly assaulting an Israeli prison guard) for at least three more days following the attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla. "Reyes Rigo remains detained in Israeli territory. We demand that the government act firmly for her immediate release and suspend all military and commercial cooperation with a genocidal state that systematically violates human rights," stated Podemos MP Martina Velarde during her appearance in Congress following a speech by Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares.
