Sánchez says Spain answers to no foreign capital

Speaking at the World in Progress forum in Barcelona, Spain’s prime minister placed Moscow alongside Washington, Tel Aviv and Buenos Aires. Pedro Sánchez also recalled how joint gas purchases helped the EU get through the most difficult months of the war in Ukraine.

On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez included Moscow among the capitals that, in his words, do not determine his country’s policies. “Spain is governed from Spain, not from Washington. And certainly not from Tel Aviv, Moscow or Buenos Aires. This is the path Europe needs,” he said at the international World in Progress (WIP) forum in Barcelona.

The forum, organized for the third time by the PRISA media group, publisher of El País and Cadena SER radio, opened at the Catalonia Congress Palace. Sánchez delivered an address titled “Rethinking Europe.” He made his remarks about the capitals while criticizing right-wing parties that form alliances with the far right. In the prime minister’s view, this means acting alongside forces subordinate to foreign leaders and oligarchs who finance the far-right movement around the world and set its direction.

Gas as an example of European unity

Sánchez identified three major threats to Europe: the return of war to the continent with Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, fierce competition between the United States and China, and the struggle for resources, particularly energy resources. He said they could be addressed only through joint action.

“When Europe is united, Europe wins,” Sánchez said, citing joint gas purchases during the most difficult moments of the war in Ukraine as an example.

The European Union launched the AggregateEU joint purchasing mechanism in 2023, after the full-scale war began, to reduce dependence on Russian gas and prevent EU countries from outbidding one another on the global market.

The “far-right international”

Sánchez devoted a significant part of his speech to the far right. For them, he said, conflict and confrontation are not means of coming to power but ends in themselves. Their strategy extends beyond national borders, while the “far-right international,” as the prime minister called it, is building alliances to weaken Europe from within.

Spain will hold general elections on November 29. At the same forum, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares warned of “external interference” and of “state and non-state forces” that, he said, seek to influence elections in Europe. The minister did not name specific countries.

A “moral beacon for humanity”

Sánchez rejected talk of the European Union’s decline. Some countries want not to leave Europe but to join it, he said, also recalling a country that “made a mistake” in 2016 by holding a referendum on leaving the EU and is now reassessing its relations with the bloc. The European Union, the prime minister said, remains a moral beacon and a foundation for human rights, democracy and social cohesion.

Speaking about the Middle East, Sánchez called the war in the region “illegal.” In his assessment, rising fuel prices have already cost Europeans an additional 100 billion euros since the beginning of the year, while tensions in the Strait of Hormuz are also affecting countries in the Global South.

“To those who want less Europe, we must respond: much more Europe,” Sánchez concluded. He also said Spain would continue its energy transition policy, adding that renewables currently account for more than half of the country’s electricity generation.

Video: El País / Clash Report. Cover photo: David Sorrakino / Europa Press

Sánchez says Spain answers to no foreign capital