The Diplomat
European “conservative and patriotic” parties meeting in Madrid yesterday, hosted by Vox, signed a joint declaration denouncing that “Russia’s military actions on Europe’s eastern border have led to the brink of war”.
The conclave -a continuation of the one held in Warsaw in December and chaired by Vox’s top leader, Santiago Abascal– was also attended by the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán; the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki; and the leader of France’s National Rally, Marine Le Pen.
Despite their different sensitivities towards Russia, they called for “working to ensure that the nations of Europe act in solidarity in the face of the threat of external aggression”. “Solidarity, determination and defence cooperation between the nations of Europe are necessary in the face of such threats,” reads the text.
In this sense, they denounce the “ineffectiveness” of EU diplomacy and argue that “every nation should have a strong and united voice to preserve peace, territorial integrity and the inviolability of the borders of European nations”, reports Europa Press.
After the summit, Vox’s political spokesman, Jorge Buxadé, said that each participant expressed their position on the crisis in Ukraine in a “free and transparent” manner and agreed that they were “concerned” about Russia’s foreign policy and also about the “lack of a common European position”.
“We have expressed our solidarity with any nation in the face of any external threat,” he explained, assuring that the Polish and Hungarian prime ministers were “completely united” in their assessment of the current situation.
As he left the meeting, Orbán said that his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week would be a normal one. The Hungarian prime minister said that they hold these meetings once a year and insisted on focusing his message on calls for de-escalation and the search for peace.
Apart from this issue, they focused their messages on defending the European primary sector, the need for reindustrialisation and demographic and birth rate policies, in which Abascal pointed to Poland and Hungary as examples to follow.
But they also reached an agreement to coordinate their positions in the European Parliament and try to reach a consensus on their votes, despite the fact that the parties belong to different groups in the European Parliament.
“There is a growing threat that seeks to transform the Union into an ideologised mega-state; a corporation that disregards national identity and sovereignty and therefore democracy, plurality and the interests of the citizens of the nations that make up the Union,” they denounce in the declaration.
In their view, the European Union is in danger of “moving away from the Christian European ideals on which it was founded” and they therefore pledge to “defend Europe from external and internal threats”. “We will confront the currents that advocate a European Union that is alien to its history and which, detached from reality, lead to demographic suicide and population transformation”, they state as an objective.
