United We Can accentuates its speech against NATO a few days before the summit in Madrid

From the right, Enrique Santiago, leader of the PCE;

Marta Martín, responsible for Latin America of the party;

and the United We Can MEP Manuel Pineda.PCE

United We can distance itself from the PSOE and accentuate its anti-NATO discourse.

Although the position is not new, criticism intensifies a few days after Madrid hosts the summit of the Atlantic Alliance —on the 29th and 30th of this month—, in full celebration of the alternative meeting “for peace” and against the institution military this weekend in the capital.

The leader of the PCE and Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda, Enrique Santiago, made his debut this Saturday at the conference organized by the State Platform for Peace NATO No as the only representative of the Government.

In addition to him, it is not expected that there will be another senior executive in the protest demonstration this Sunday.

Santiago, who has clarified that he was taking part in the talk as general secretary of the PCE,

Despite the forcefulness of his speech, the Secretary of State has avoided direct criticism of the PSOE.

Although there have been several those responsible for the United Left who have participated in the so-called "counter-summit" -among them its federal spokesperson and MEP, Sira Rego, or the MEP Manuel Pineda-, the Minister of Consumption and federal coordinator of IU has not been , Alberto Garzón, and the profile of the participants of Podemos has been low.

The party led by Ione Belarra is aware of the noise generated by this type of initiative.

The latest controversy, which greatly upset the PSOE, majority partner of the coalition, occurred less than a month ago when one of its spokesmen and secretary of the Congress table, Javier Sánchez Serna,

He affirmed that the Government had “handpicked” the contracts for the transfer of spaces and the security of the summit.

It is not expected that any minister of United We can attend the international meeting next week.

More information

United We Can raises pressure against the NATO summit

In response to the media, Santiago justified his participation in the meeting upon his arrival.

“Our job is to promote all kinds of initiatives that end war as soon [as possible], that end military alliances and that can allow all resources to be dedicated to alleviating the needs of people, which is what we do. we are in the Government”, he pointed out just a few hours after the Council of Ministers approved an investment of 9,000 million euros to alleviate the effects of the crisis.

In this context of runaway inflation, after two years of the pandemic, the PCE leader believes that the increase in military spending announced by Sánchez —in line with the commitment made within NATO to invest 2% of GDP in Defense— it is something “grossly inappropriate”.

The president made his intentions public in March, less than a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and when Spain had already decided to send weapons to the government of Volodímir Zelenski.

A first movement that Podemos rejected and that caused new tensions between the coalition partners.

"The increase in defense spending and the corresponding decrease in social spending [to care for vulnerable people] generates greater social unrest and an appropriate crop bald for the forces of the right to advance," he defended.

“We have just seen it in Andalusia.

Apart from their own mistakes“, he recognized in reference to the poor results of the coalition that brought together Podemos, IU and Más País, “the Andalusian Parliament, a region always clearly identified with the left, has two thirds of its seats in the hands of the right and the extreme right”, reflected Santiago.

The Secretary of State has also questioned the military investment figures.

The Atlantic Alliance calculates that Spain spent 1.02% of GDP in 2021.

"According to the data we handle in the parliamentary group, our country would easily be at 1.8%," said Santiago, for whom these figures refer "exclusively" to the Defense budget, without including other expenses distributed by different departments. .

“Peacekeeping missions abroad are usually attributed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, he pointed out as an example in the early afternoon and before a half-empty auditorium.

The manifesto of the alternative summit, which culminates on Sunday at noon with a march through the center of Madrid, considers the Alliance a "threat to peace", advocates "promoting its dissolution and creating a new demilitarized security system", in addition to requesting the "dismantling" and "reconversion" of the military industry.