Good.
In Spains case, it’s lip service.
Here we go again… and same wording… Who are you people trying to minimize Spain’s intention… Spain passed laws against exporting arms to Israel, laws against arms transit through Spain to Israel, joined South Africa on the ICC case, raise its discomfort with Israel in Eurovision and raise the genocide in every international venue. Of course, Spain should do more, much more, and probably could if this administration was not based in a very delicate coalition and forces inside and out attempting for it to collapse. It is like in a classroom of kids no one but one kid does the homework and we direct our criticism to him for missing a few questions. Countries like Spain or Mexico are doing amazing, considering the circumstances (being a NATO member and being right by the US).
Spain has done things that currently amount to jack shit. Also, the reason why the government has been forced to adopt such a stance is because they’re completely opportunistic and most of the population is against Israel, but with their corruption cases going on, we’re gonna see another govt soon (despite what PSOE says about staying until 2027) and then the govt will do a 180.
This year, Spain has still been importing arms from Israel. They also facilitate commerce from illegal (not internationally recognised) settlements.
If people “minimize” what Spain has done it’s because it indeed is minimal. It’s only because the country was originally more distant from Israeli arms commerce that they can now brag about it and get “”“leftist”“” brownie points.
E: and the “concrete measures” in the post’s headline will be discussed on and on and will go nowhere, or maybe they will draft a plan that never goes ratified, and if it does it will not get any resources allocated to be implemented. All things I’ve seen before in internal politics, especially when it comes to measures that benefit the working class.
Lastly, it’s funny that they “champion” the cause for Palestinian rights while at the same time do their best to ignore any calls from the Sahrawi people, which have also been denied self-determination and are precisely being robbed by Spain (and Morocco, a fellow Zionist neighbour). They even steal the fucking sand, it’s crazy.
“completely opportunistic and most of the population is against Israel” is so true and yet misleading. True, Sanchez is not such humanitarian dude, he is indeed a egocentric, but he is acting based on what his bases want and also his coalition bases want… that is not the meaning of being “opportunistic”.
His political party corruption cases came after his stand on Gaza, not before… surprisingly after… lots of rare things are happening in Spain after Spanish stand… from calls being leaked masseveliy, his wife being indicted with no much ado, complete national blackouts in a fragmented electrical grid, bullet trains cannot run because in the middle of nowhere someone steal some cables, the EU appoints Meloni to ostracize him for no wanting to quadruple military spending… That he still sticks to his policies on Gaza, speaks for him, not against. Trust me, if he appeased his claims on Gaza, lots of the problems for him will vanish in thin air and the opposition will have to do the job without the foreign support to do so.
Of course, the corruption cases are real (they always are… no much his wifeś though) but the person that caused should be indicted not the party (unless someone prove the party or Sanchez knew, and none has proven that). The cases cite a $600000 to $2500000 corruption case… bad, but I wish the press focused more in the tens of billions of Euros of extra money laundering scheme that has been destined to NATO’s coffers that, for sure, Spaniards and Europeans citizens will never see accounted for no more; that is the real news!!
On the Sahara people, I am with you though; Sanchez he 100% failed his constituency and Spain on that. Probably he calculated than once the US made the deal with Morocco, the cause was lost and he calculated he will be rewarded by Washington; a ailing empire does no reward, only sucks you on.
They are “doing” the least they can get away with, that’s what I’m talking about. They resort to this stance because of the terrible state of their party and government, not despite it. They campaigned on abolishing the ley mordaza and they haven’t done shit after years. I guess the rank and file social democrats don’t want that… And I guess their rank and file don’t care about unionists being imprisoned or poor people being evicted without Amy housing alternative, or just fascists roaming willy-nilly. Finally, the current government may project this sense of standing with Gaza/international law in their foreign policy, but at home people are still being punished for so much as declaring solidarity with Palestine.
Their corruption cases are just the latest event, but let’s remember that they had their controversies over the years, which most likely pushed them into this stance. It doesn’t matter what person is to blame, what responsibility any given person has in the cases, it simply reflects very badly on the party, which is exploited by the opposition of course.
I have to remind you that all tangible actions have been achieved by grassroots organising: BDS initiatives, university encampments, trade unions (not UGT/CCOO of course), etc. They made universities divest and dissociate from Israel, they made Maersk back off from some shipments, they prevented ships sailing to Israel and it was they that made the government cave in and have to take any kind of pro-Palestinian stance. If we go back to October 7, we see that the PSOE govt has changed a lot in this regard, and, again, it’s because of people organising. I have to repeat myself here and say they’re lucky that they hadn’t even more ties to Israel prior to October 7.
Wow Pinguinu, you are in fire! I cannot disagree much here. I see you are not a PSOE fan (Main Political party in Spain)… and right to be so, they were the ones put Spain in NATO to begin with. But very disappointed with all, and I mean all small coalition parties too. Anyone party you would root for in Spain/Europe?
Now, given ALL Spain’s neighbors, from north to south, from East to West… sorry, but Spain stands out on Gaza’s cause by a lot! Should Spain do more, absolutely! Even at the risk of loosing the governorship because in somethings, an genocide is one of them, one should not do compromises. Yet, I understand some many think is better to endure with half-measured policies than to do the right thing and perish in the attempt.
Sorry, I did not understand the “they’re lucky that they hadn’t even more ties to Israel prior to October 7”. What do you mean?
