Spanish left and right divided over Israel-Palestine

Left-wing parties Izquierda Unida, Unidas Podemos and Comuns called for demonstrations in solidarity with all the victims of the conflict between Palestine and Israel on Tuesday, while the right and the far-right camps urged acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to appear before parliament and shed full light on the current political ‘cacophony’ on the conflict.

The delegation of the three left-wing groups in the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), an association of more than 7,000 different local entities in Spain, has called for silent rallies at the doors of all town halls in Spain on Wednesday at noon, Euractiv´s partner EFE reported.

The left-wing political formations signed a declaration on Tuesday that they “firmly condemn the murder of civilians by any of the sides in the conflict”.

They also express their “solidarity and support for the Palestinians in Palestine as a whole or in exile as a result of the war of occupation that Israel has been waging for 75 years”, the joint declaration reads.

They also ask that “no humanitarian aid program for the Palestinian population be paralysed in any territory, particularly in the Gaza Strip, which is suffering brutal Israeli repression”, about the controversy generated in Brussels on Tuesday about a possible suspension of EU Humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

The three parties called on the Spanish government to “recognise the State of Palestine, with all the consequences” and to mediate “at the international level to end the conflict”.

The Sumar party, an ally of Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D) in the country’s future government, called out the EU’s “double standards” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Monday.

At a press conference in Madrid, Sumar spokesman Ernest Urtasun stated that Israel is “an occupying force” and lamented that the EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, “never condemns the war crimes committed by Israel”.

Partido Popular urges Sánchez to explain internal divergences

Meanwhile, Partido Popular (PP/EPP), the main opposition force, called on Tuesday for Pedro Sánchez or Foreign Affairs Minister José Manuel Albares to appear before parliament to report on the situation in Israel after the “terrorist attacks” by Hamas.

The PP spokeswoman in parliament, Cuca Gamarra, criticised that there are “members of the government who have made statements (about Israel) that are not appropriate for a country like Spain.”

Shortly after the terrorist attack, Yolanda Díaz, the leader of the progressive platform Sumar and acting Labour Minister, demanded on her X account that Israel comply with UN resolutions.

“We need a just, lasting and sustainable peace that means complying with international law, ending the occupation and allowing the Palestinian people to live in dignity. The international community cannot continue to stand idly by”, she stated.

The PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said in an interview aired by esRadio that there is an “obvious contradiction” not only between the PSOE and its “parliamentary partners” on the conflict but also within the Executive itself about Unidas Podemos.

“Not only have they (Unidas Podemos) not condemned the Hamas attacks, but they have tried to justify them”, Feijóo stressed.

The opposition chief regretted that Spain “has been left out” of the rest of the Western democracies that have condemned with “forcefulness” what has happened in Israel.

Feijóo lamented that Spain had been left out of the joint declaration signed by France, Germany, Italy and the United States, in which they expressed a resounding condemnation of the Hamas attack and unanimous support for the Israeli people.

PP spokesman Borja Sémper sharply attacked Sumar for “justifying” the terrorist attacks by Hamas. He was referring to a post by Sumar’s Sahrawi MP Tesh Sidi in which she wrote: “Today and always with Palestine”.

“It is clear that there has been an act of terrorism against Israel, and it is clear that no one (Sumar/Unidas Podemos) should confuse the concern that one can have for the population and confuse it with what is an absolutely reprehensible and condemnable terrorist action in all its terms”, said PSOE spokesman in Parliament, Patxi López.

This is not the first time that PSOE and its left-wing coalition partners have publicly exposed their differences. The most notorious case occurred shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine when the now almost defunct Unidas Podemos fiercely criticised Madrid’s decision to send tanks and weapons to Kyiv.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)