The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, altered yesterday, for the second consecutive day, his work agenda in his long-awaited Summit between the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held in Brussels, to attend an election rally in San Sebastián.
On the first day of the Summit, of which he was the main supporter in the framework of the current Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, Pedro Sánchez participated in the opening of the event, held in Brussels, but was absent from the gala dinner offered by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, to the leaders of the two regions to participate in an election rally of the PSOE in Huesca together with the head of list for Zaragoza and current Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Pilar Alegría.
At the end of this first rally, the President of the Government -and head of the list for Madrid in the legislative elections this coming Sunday- returned to Brussels to participate in the second day of the Summit. However, just after the conclusion of the Summit, in which a final declaration was approved to which only Nicaragua objected (for its rejection of the paragraph alluding to the war in Ukraine), the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, announced that the final press conference would be attended by himself, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and President for the time being of CELAC, Ralph Gonsalves; and the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez. Pedro Sánchez, despite being on the agenda and despite the fact that five lecterns had already been set up in the press room, had disappeared.
The press conference had been delayed by up to two and a half hours from the scheduled time because of the long and unsuccessful negotiations to convince Nicaragua. Under these conditions, the press conference would not be able to finish before 6:30 p.m. and Pedro Sánchez estimated that it would be impossible for him to attend the rally in San Sebastián, which started at 8:00 p.m. He therefore decided to leave the building and leave the press room. Therefore, he decided to leave the building and skip, for the second time, one of the most emblematic moments of the Summit. In an attempt to get out of the way, Moncloa issued around nine o’clock in the evening a press release on “the participation of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in the EU-CELAC Summit” in which some of the results of the meeting are listed and the President of the Government is only mentioned in the first paragraph.
In response, the PP harshly criticized Pedro Sánchez’s “irresponsibility” and accused him of “compromising the role and image of Spain.” “Spain’s interests cannot be in the hands of a president who puts his electoral urgencies before his obligations,” party sources told Efe news agency.
Meeting with progressive leaders
On the other hand, Pedro Sánchez took advantage of his presence in Brussels yesterday to hold a meeting with the progressive leaders present at the Summit, both Latin American and European, who expressed their support to the President of the Government in his fight against the right and the extreme right and in view of the July 23rd elections.
The meeting, which was held at the Sofitel Hotel in Brussels under the slogan Together for Global Justice, was attended by the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil; the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro; the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz; the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa; the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen; the president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández; the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric (who visited Spain last week); the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell; the vice president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans; and the Mexican foreign minister, Alicia Bárcena, among others.
“From Bolsonaro in Brazil to Vox in Spain, progressives, socialists and democrats will fight against right-wing, nationalist and regressive forces in every corner of the world,” declared the attendees, quoted in a press release from the Party of European Socialists (PES). “Looking ahead to the coming battle in the fight against right-wing extremism, all the leaders wished success to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in the general elections in Spain on Sunday,” the note continued.
“All over the world, the shadow of right-wing extremism is growing,” said PES President Stefan Löfven. “It threatens our democratic institutions, fuels division and hatred and jeopardizes the progress that has been achieved in recent decades,” he continued. “This is the struggle we are seeing in Spain and for which we wish Pedro Sánchez every success ahead of the elections,” he added. The chief executive also received the express support of Scholz and Costa, who warned that the elections in Spain are decisive for Europe and may alter the political balance.
