Sánchez helps a Scholz in difficulties: “In Berlin and Brussels you will have me by your side” | EUROtoday
The Spanish president meets with the German chancellor throughout the framework of the congress of social democrats
When Chancellor Olaf Scholz meets with a European colleague to speak about bilateral or neighborhood points, he does so on the headquarters of the Government and on work days. With the president Pedro Sanchez He has made an exception that leads us to consider which got here first, the hen or the egg. In the ultimate stretch of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU, however coinciding above all with the congress that the Social Democratic Party (SPD) is holding this weekend in Berlin, Scholz and Sánchez met to deal with European problems with relevance and with particular consideration to the negotiation of the multi-annual monetary framework and the migration pact, in line with Moncloa sources.
The assembly, nevertheless, appeared extra a gesture of help amongst social democrats in severe difficulties. It was held within the room the place some 600 SPD delegates meet at their congress and after these conversations, of which nothing has emerged from the German aspect, Sánchez appeared on the platform as a visitor. The “comrade” Pedro, newly elected president of Spain – as he was launched and in Spanish by the co-president of the SPD, Lars Klingbeil – was obtained with an ovation.
“Dear Olaf, today and always, here, and in Brussels, you will have me at your side. Count on me, count on the Spanish socialists to fight all the battles and challenges that unite us,” mentioned Sánchez with out going into the main points as a result of he was time would have run out. Of course, I inspired him, maybe with out realizing it, to do what the Socialist Youth (Jusos) and the left wing of the SPD blame Scholz for. “The right thing to do is not to give in to melancholy or let yourself be carried away by inertia, but to have the courage to drive change, as your motto says: Germany. Better. Fair,” he declared.
Because for Sánchez, “if there is something revolutionary in politics, it is doing the right thing and the right thing to do in times of uncertainty and great transformations like the ones we are experiencing is to show initiative and determination.” Scholz has not proven both and though there is no such thing as a deep fissures within the SPD past disappointment, the polls accuse him. Scholz is probably the most unpopular Social Democratic chancellor on report. Only 20% approve of his work and the occasion is just round 14% in voting intention. In some federal states within the east of the nation it’s even beneath 5% of the brink required by regulation to entry parliaments.
Scholz wants an injection of encouragement and of the handful of social democratic leaders in workplace, probably the most appropriate nurse was Sánchez. “We Spanish socialists owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the SPD for promoting and strengthening social democracy in Spain and because the SPD contributed decisively to strengthening democracy in my country. We will never forget that example of fraternity in the darkest moment. So, “I don’t handle you as a Spanish social democrat, however as one other member of this nice household known as SPD, I contemplate myself considered one of yours,” he said.
Sánchez did not talk about the situation in Spain and tiptoed internationally. He focused on the threat of the far right and denounced “the virus of hate and concern that’s invading the standard proper in lots of components of Europe and the world.” He stated that in “the previous, conservatives merely sought to protect the established order” and that this could be harmful but not lethal. “Now the true menace is totally different: they don’t seem to be merely in search of to protect one thing. They are in search of, pushed by the acute proper, to throw us into the ashes of the previous. And that may be deadly for democracy,” he warned.
He added, in that context, that “Spain mentioned with the pressure of purpose and the facility of votes no to regression and concern, to the previous and involution. Today Spain has a brand new progressive authorities and from that authorities we’ll defend with conviction the Europe open, supportive and dedicated to the Human Rights that others need to remove.”
The battle that the SPD currently has open is not with the populist right or the extreme right, but with its coalition partners, the Greens and the liberals of the FDP. 17,000 million euros are missing to round out the general budgets next year in accordance with a recent ruling by the Constitutional Court and the partners cannot agree on how to resolve the mess. The SPD and the Greens are committed to lifting the debt brake to maintain the planned investments, to which the FDP, more thrifty, is radically opposed. Another option is to declare 2024 an “emergency scenario” and that’s where the shots went in Congress.
Scholz gave the clue in his speech. I spent almost half an hour talking about Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, its consequences in Europe and the need for Germany, in anticipation of the United States cutting off military aid to that country next year, to be in a position to compensate. that loss. The underlying reason is that if the federal government declared the emergency for 2024 due to the war in Ukraine and its consequences, you could suspend the debt brake again and spend more money.
There is no political formation in Germany that questions military and economic aid to kyiv and in that sense, it is possible that the SPD option has the support of all parliamentary groups and the FDP. Another thing is the Court of Accounts and the assessment of the amount that should be budgeted for Ukraine and only for Ukraine. The opposite would be null, according to the mid-November ruling of the TC. In it he declared unconstitutional the reallocation of 60 billion euros of unused coronavirus funds to a Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF). These funds are now missing for the coming years.
With the political debate focused on the 2024 budgets still up in the air, it is understood that for the SPD the only lifeline is Ukraine and that the situation in Gaza will be settled with closed applause after a few very brief words from the chancellor: “We are of the aspect of Israel and the precise to protection”.
Sánchez, like the perfect guest, did not sow discord. Quite the opposite. He closed his intervention by citing the figure of Jorge Semprán, Minister of Culture in the 1980s, survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp, and whose birth this Sunday marks 100 years. Among the delegates at the SPD congress was, as an observer, the Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor.
https://www.elmundo.es/internacional/2023/12/09/6574a681fc6c831b2f8b45bd.html