The focus of Spanish politics is on the
Koldo case
and the amnesty law, but life goes on in La Moncloa and Pedro Sánchez's international agenda is one of the issues that the president cares about most and has given him the most political and economic satisfaction. given.
Although tension sometimes appears between the Ibex 35 and the Government, especially due to special taxes on banks, energy companies or large fortunes, the reality is that Sánchez maintains an international agenda very focused on opening business for the large Spanish multinationals and also for other smaller companies and consolidate their position in areas of the planet where there are great possibilities in infrastructure, telecommunications, renewable energy, water treatment, innovative agriculture, and other issues in which Spain is a world power.
In this context, and at the height of Spanish politics, Sánchez has maintained his planned travel schedule and at the end of this Tuesday he lands in Brazil for a two-day visit to the giant led by the progressive Lula da Silva - with a stop at the political capital, Brasilia, and in the economic capital, Sao Paulo—and another one day to Chile, also led by another politician from the Latin American left such as Gabriel Boric.
In case there were doubts that this harmony between the president and the business community is maintained when seeking international business, Sánchez travels on the plane with the president of the employers' association, Antonio Garamendi, and a group of directors of Spanish multinationals interested in business. in Brazil and Chile, among whom is also the former minister Pedro Duque, who now heads Hispasat.
The trip has a clear economic content, although it does not seem coincidental that Sánchez has chosen precisely two leaders of Latin American progressivism such as Lula and Boric while this time he does not approach other surrounding countries that are in conservative hands such as Argentina - now presided over by the far-right Javier Milei, at the political antipodes of the Spanish.
Sánchez did go to Buenos Aires to see the Peronist Alberto Fernández, with whom he had a good relationship, but a trip to Argentina now seems unlikely.
From a political point of view, in addition, the president has become a reference for the democratic Latin American left—the president is completely opposed to autocrats such as the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro or the Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega—due to his clearly critical position with the systematic bombing. of Israel on Gaza.
If Sánchez in Europe is in the minority, with Belgium, Luxembourg and Ireland, defending a ceasefire in Gaza, in Latin America, and especially in Lula Da Silva and Boric, he will find a lot of support for this position that has made him in Europe the one who is most clearly demanding that Israel stop the bombing, something that has caused significant tension with the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Where there is still distance, as demonstrated in Lula Da Silva's last visit to La Moncloa, is in the position on Ukraine, since the Brazilian and other Latin Americans insist on rejecting European intervention to arm the Ukrainians.
Sánchez will go to the Planalto palace to see Lula and visit an exhibition on the first anniversary of the assault carried out by thousands of Jair Bolsonaro's supporters on this place, the heart of the Brazilian executive, legislative and judicial power, something that will undoubtedly help him remember, as he did in The White House, the rejection of the delegitimization of the electoral results that characterizes important sectors of the extreme right around the world.
From the point of view of economic agreements, Sánchez and Lula Da Silva are two of the presidents who have pushed most strongly towards the signing of the treaty between the EU and Mercosur, which was closer than ever last December, but the opposition of France truncated it and now the farmers' movements throughout Europe against what they see as unfair competition from products from other countries greatly distances the possibility of progress on this issue that has been stagnant for 20 years.
But the presence of Spanish companies in Brazil and Chile is very strong, and Sánchez goes with several businessmen to consolidate it.
The president will also symbolically visit one of the most significant civil works in Brazil, the expansion of the Sao Paulo metro, led by the Spanish company Acciona.
Brazil, the great political and economic giant of the region, is Spain's main market in Latin America.
There he is the second investor, his companies reach the figure of 26,000 million dollars.
“With Bolsonaro the situation was not simple but now with Lula there is an opportunity,” summarized in La Moncloa.
”His government is developing large public investment projects in health, energy, water, housing, worth 300 billion euros.
It is a very relevant economic trip, which is why the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, accompanies the president.”
In Chile, a much smaller country, Spanish companies also have a strong presence and Sánchez will also seek more symbolic political aspects with Boric, with whom he has a very good relationship.
If in New York, within the framework of the UN assembly, both organized a joint tribute to Salvador Allende, in Santiago de Chile, Sánchez will celebrate 8M, international women's day, with an event in the Commune of La Pintana, a popular neighborhood of the capital.
At the end, the president will return to Spain on Saturday, in theory with the amnesty law already approved and with the legislature somewhat more on track, although without yet fully knowing what dimensions the Koldo case will reach.
The president will have appearances before the press with both Lula and Boric, and from there he will have to give explanations of Spanish news, which will accompany him at all times on the trip at a particularly delicate moment in his mandate.
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