The European Socialists (S&D) are encouraged to follow the example Spain set in the 23 July snap general elections and stop the far-right in the June 2024 European elections, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said at a meeting with S&D in Madrid on Thursday.
At a S&D meeting held on Thursday in Madrid, Sánchez (PSOE) urged the party members to stand up to the far right in Europe represented, among other forces, by Vox, AfD or Marine le Pen’s Rassemblement National, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported.
The Spanish society, Sánchez said, sent to Europe and the world in the 23-July elections a message of “enormous symbolic value” that “the far right is not unstoppable” despite the fact that the “traditional right” has given in to it, he insisted.
The European elections are “decisive” because the essence of a project that has been forged (that of the EU) “as a beacon of freedom, democracy, prosperity and progress” not only for Europe but also for the whole world, is at stake, the acting prime minister stated.
He again warned that they are up against “powerful forces”, not only political but also economic, “that use fear, lies and manipulation to poison society with messages of hatred”.
The socialist candidate, who is currently trying to forge a new left-wing coalition with the progressive platform Sumar to govern Spain, explained that the rise of the far right in Europe is made possible by the “abdication” of the conventional right.
‘Bulwark of freedom’ in Europe
An “abdication”, he stressed, of parties such as Spain´s Partido Popular (PP(EPP) that are incapable of resisting its onslaught and end up succumbing “through weakness, ideological weakness and fear”.
For this reason, Sánchez added, the PP “has not hesitated for a second” to join forces with the far right wherever possible in Europe (Fratelli D’Italia, among others), taking decisions that, in his opinion, curtail freedoms, question violence against women and deny climate change.
He also called on the European socialists to be “the bulwark” and “bastion” of the ideal of the continent and to reaffirm that rights and freedoms are not negotiable because “the soul of Europe is not and will never be for sale”.
(José Miguel Blanco | EFE)
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