Ribera defends Sánchez’s diplomacy and reproaches the PP that its international policy is the photo of the Azores
The PP candidate in the European elections, Dolors Montserrat, has criticized that the Spanish Government has broken European unity with the recognition of the State of Palestine, also reproaching that the PSOE handed over the governability of Spain to “a fugitive from justice”, in reference to former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who “has links” with Putin, “Europe’s biggest enemy” and who is being investigated by the European Parliament.
Montserrat, who has also exposed the “hoaxes” of President Pedro Sánchez, when he denied the amnesty or his pacts with independentists, has regretted that the Executive has broken the consensus on international politics in the Spanish Parliament, while ensuring that the PSOE has broken the unity of the 27 with the recognition of Palestine, in contrast to the consensus that existed in Europe to support Ukraine against the Russian war.
“They have done it alone, an individual initiative in the electoral campaign to cover up the amnesty, which breaks the equality of Spaniards, and to cover up the corruption of the Sánchez Government,” the ‘popular’ candidate recriminated during the ‘face to face’ debate. ‘ which was held this Wednesday in La Sexta, a statement that has been refuted by the socialist candidate, who has accused her of activating “the machine of mud, hoaxes, lies and dirty games” that they have been running since the PP failed to govern after the 23J elections.
In this sense, Ribera has contrasted Montserrat’s position by defending Sánchez’s leadership to defend “values, freedom and the United Nations charter.” Thus, he has asked the leader of the PP to answer if there is a violation of Human Rights in Gaza. “The only international appearance of a Popular Party government in recent years is that photo of Mr. Aznar from the Azores,” he indicated, in reference to the snapshot of the former ‘popular’ president with the former US president, George Bush and the former prime minister. UK Minister Tony Blair.
On the other hand, Ribera has criticized the PP for saying that the Spanish Government has overacted with an “electoralist” reaction after the words of the Argentine president, Javier Milei, at the Vox event in Madrid, recalling that the PSOE supported Mariano Rajoy in 2016 when he called the ambassador in Caracas for consultations after the insults of Nicolás Maduro or that Zapatero defended Aznar before Hugo Chávez.
“They are asked to defend the legality and honor of the Spanish institutions,” Ribera defended something that, as he said, the PP is not “accustomed to” because it only “mixes, insults and accuses without foundations.”
The pacts have been one of the points that have most ignited the ‘face to face’, being in fact the first question asked in the debate to the ‘popular’ candidate, who has been asked precisely about the increase that the polls give of a ” advance of the extreme right” and what the relationship will be with these parties in Parliament, to which Montserrat has slipped that the PP is a “Europeanist, reformist” party and that “governs from the centrality.”
For his part, Ribera, in response to this response, has addressed the question to his rival by asking him if the “right is going to continue surrendering to the extreme right.” In line, he has assured that the growth of the right in Europe will not mean a plebiscite for Pedro Sánchez, although it will mean a plebiscite on Europe.
“Do we want more Europe or are we going to look back (…)? We have broken that traditional model, that liberal mantra that it was impossible to build more economy, get more jobs, on the basis of a fairer social agenda or on basis of a green agenda, so that is what we need. More Europe”, he claimed.
Subsequently, the amnesty law and the pacts with Junts have also entered the debate. For Montserrat, “the most radical thing in Europe” is that Sánchez “has handed over governability” to a “fugitive from justice” who has “connections with Putin”, the “greatest enemy of Europe.” “That is radicalism,” she insisted, recalling after the European Parliament agreed to investigate the connections of the Catalan independence movement with the ‘Kremlin’.
Ribera has also expressed the need not to be “equidistant” with the rise of the extreme right or with deniers of climate change or equal rights between men and women. “We must defend democracy. It is not worth playing with words, it is not worth playing with those hoaxes that end up generating mud around us,” said the vice president, who also proposed to Dolors Montserrat a joint declaration at the European level to stop extremism and which, according to Ribera, the PP has not yet supported.
On the other hand, Montserrat has insisted that “the first thing” that must be done in Europe is that “it is not normalized that the Government has handed over the governability of Spain by seven votes to a fugitive from justice”, in an investiture that was agreed “outside” the EU, “delivering” equality to Spaniards and “giving privileges to few.” Furthermore, she has denounced the reform of the Spanish Penal Code that “is reducing the crime of corruption” when in Europe, in her opinion, calls are made for “extending and increasing penalties.” “In the face of populists and populisms, what we have to do is defend firm principles and real solutions,” she concluded.