Prime Minister and Socialist Party leader Pedro Sánchez on Friday was elected president of Socialist International, the worldwide organisation of political parties seeking to establish democratic socialism.
Sánchez, the first Spaniard to be elected to the high-profile post at the Socialist International, put forward his intention to relaunch the organisation’s role in his speech before the Socialist International Congress on Saturday Sunday (26-27 November) in Madrid.
Sanchez takes over from former Greek prime minister Yorgos Papandreou. Before him, other presidents of the Socialist International included former chancellor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Willy Brandt (1976-1992), former French prime minister Pierre Mauroy and António Guterres, the former Portuguese prime minister currently serving as the UN’s
Socialist International was re-established in its current form in 1951 and has brought together 132 social democratic, socialist and labour parties from around the World since 2006.
The closing ceremony of the Socialist International Congress on Sunday was also attended by former Spanish socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, PSOE’s Secretary for International Policy and Development Cooperation, Hana Jalloul, the President of the Socialist International of Women, Janet Camilo, and the Secretary General of the Socialist International, Benedicta Lasi.
In his closing speech, Sánchez expressed his will to “relaunch” the Socialist International and make it stronger, with a greater influence in the world.
He also called for “action” to confront the “pessimism that right-wing and reactionary movements are trying to promote”, and defended the role of social democracy in the world. “We are more alive than ever,” he told delegates from participating countries.
Among the major issues he intends to address, he mentioned gender equality, the fight against the “climate emergency” and the commitment to a “fair and inclusive” economy.
One of Sánchez’s challenges at the head of the Socialist International is to persuade former key members of the organisation such as the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), to return to it, something that PSOE sources assume could happen soon.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)
Source: euractiv.com
