Albares responds to his coalition partner that “Spain is not hiding” in the Ukrainian crisis and that foreign action “is marked” by the president
The escalation of tension between Russia and NATO, which threatens to cause an earthquake on the continent, is making its aftershocks felt on a domestic scale. United We Can has revived the ‘No to war’, the slogan with which the opposition tried to dissuade the Government of José María Aznar from participating in the war in Iraq in 2003, to criticize the eventual sending of Spanish troops if the crisis leads to armed conflict. Although this time the slogan is addressed to his coalition partner, with whom he has become entangled due to his different interpretation of the situation. “Spain is the country of ‘No to war’, whoever leaves that path is making a very serious mistake,” warned this Friday the spokesman for the purples and candidate for the autonomous communities of Castilla y León, Pablo Fernández.
The new electoral cycle has brought about a change in relations within the Council of Ministers, the partners establish positions with regard to their electorate, especially Podemos, which has anti-war in its DNA, and the electoral campaigns whose slogan was based on not doing friendly fire between both parties. Proof of this is that the Ministers of Social Rights and Equality, Ione Belarra and Irene Montero, respectively, entered the rag on the issue this Friday, although without personalizing the criticism at any time. “‘Not to the war’. With that spirit and with that commitment we must work and intensify diplomatic channels to de-escalate any conflict,” defended the number one and two of Podemos.
Yesterday, Podemos brought together seven other parties (Izquierda Unida, En Comú Podem, Alianza Verde, Bildu, BNG, CUP, Más País and Compromis) to sign a manifesto ‘for Peace’ in which they show their “concern” about the “increase » of the warlike tension in Ukraine between the United States and Russia, as well as the «outright rejection» of sending troops to the Black Sea and Bulgaria and the conviction that this conflict «can only be resolved through dialogue, détente and the conviction that peace is the only way.
The immediate reaction of the purples forced the Socialists to clarify diplomatic concepts with the aim of not feeding more divisions within the coalition, even more so with a volatile and extremely serious geopolitical issue. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, recalled that it is the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who “marks the foreign action” of the Executive and asked not to make “political fiction”. In doing so, he limited a European response to a possible Russian invasion to “enormous economic sanctions.” He also warned that “the construction of Europe is at stake and unity must prevail.” “These are difficult moments in which we all hold our breath. Spain is demonstrating within NATO what it is, a country that wants peace, that is committed to detente and that is united and does not hide, “he settled.
Other socialist leaders were forced to lower the tension with Podemos. The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, denied that there are going to be “problems” within the “interior of the Government”. Of course, he acknowledged that it is “a very delicate matter.” And the spokesman for the PSOE, Felipe Sicilia, defended that his party “is committed to a diplomatic solution to any conflict”, a position that, he argued, “is that of the Government.”
frigate movement
The truth is that the Executive is far from sharing a common vision of the crisis. The way in which Spain’s participation in the NATO device to dissuade Russia was made public annoyed the coalition’s minor partner, whose reaction was preceded by the advancement of the planned shipment of the Blas de Lezo frigate and the ship of maritime action Meteoro to the allied permanent fleet that will patrol the Black Sea. Area that has become one of the main theaters of the crisis. The government has also offered to send Air Force fighter-bombers to Bulgaria as part of NATO’s deterrent deployment in Eastern Europe.
On the other hand, Albares held a meeting on Tuesday with the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, to whom he conveyed his commitment that “any new Russian aggression against Ukraine would entail a severe response.” An issue that also alerted its partners. “Pushing NATO to Russia is a mistake and it is strategically clumsy: gas, oil, inflation will rise,” accused the PCE general secretary, Enrique Santiago.
At the same time, the PP tries to take advantage of the exchange of reproaches to accentuate the division in the Executive. Pablo Casado asked the ministers of United We Can this Friday “if they are a single government.” Although he closed ranks with Sánchez on the Russian issue and requested his appearance to account for the situation in Congress, he reproached the purples for “being with Russia and not with NATO.” “I would like to listen to Vice President Díaz,” said the leader of the popular.
Vox asks the PP “not to exaggerate” the criticism of Sánchez for the funds
Vox’s spokesman in Congress, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, recommended that the PP be careful not to “exaggerate” criticism of the Pedro Sánchez government outside of Spain. The far-right leader warned that an excessive reproach “can end up deteriorating the image of our country abroad” and that is, he added, when one leaves the national territory one must “take into account other additional factors” about the national policy that they are unknown elsewhere. The general secretary of the popular party, Teodoro García-Egea, responded and charged against those of Santiago Abascal because “they first gave the funds to the Executive” with their abstention in the Congressional vote on the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and “now no They control them.” “What does Vox owe Sánchez?” he wrote on Twitter.
.