Barcelona, Spain — Left-wing leaders from across Europe and Latin America held a two-day conference in Spain to defend the rule of international law and combat the rise of the far-right.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio da Silva, strong critics of U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, kicked off the event on Friday with a bilateral meeting at the former royal palace in Barcelona. Associated Press It has been reported.
There are two events taking place on Saturday. The first IV Conference to Defend Democracies, set to begin in 2024, was designed as a forum to exchange ideas to combat “extremism, polarization and misinformation,” organizers said.
Lula said the summit should not be seen as an opportunity to attack President Trump’s policies.
“This meeting will not be an anti-Trump meeting,” Lula told a Spanish newspaper. nation On Thursday. “We will discuss the state of our democracy, find out what is wrong and what we need to do to fix it.”
Other heads of state attending the summit included Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum; South African President Cyril Ramaphosa; Colombian President Gustavo Petro and leaders of Uruguay, Lithuania, Ghana, Albania and others attended.
Sheinbaum’s decision to come to Spain comes after King Felipe VI recently acknowledged that Spain’s conquest of the Americas resulted in “mistreatment” of indigenous people. The move eased tensions between Mexico and Spain over their shared colonial heritage.
Sheinbaum has become one of the strongest left-wing voices in Latin America at a time when the country is under greater pressure from the Trump administration and some countries, such as Chile and Ecuador, are moving to the right.
A popular figure in Mexico, she has maintained a good relationship with Trump.
The Defense of Democracies conference will be followed by Global Progressive Mobilization on Saturday in places such as Barcelona.
Sánchez and Lula are scheduled to speak at the event, which is expected to draw 3,000 people, including Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Murphy.
We plan to discuss ways to improve the progressive camp’s election results, including wage inequality.
The Spanish prime minister could use the platform to criticize the U.S. president, or he could try to focus on what the left has to offer as Spain holds general elections next year.
Spain recently declared its airspace closed to U.S. aircraft used in the war against Iran, and Sánchez declared the war with Iran “illegal.”
Pablo Simon, a political expert at the Charles III University of Madrid, said: Latin America Report The summit has been used by democratic leaders to counter far-right groups that use similar gatherings to promote messages opposing immigration and supporting free-market nationalism.
Last March, former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hosted the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) summit in Budapest, which was attended by Argentine President Javier Millay, Spain’s Vox leader Santiago Abascal, and Germany’s Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) co-chair Alice Weidel.
“This summit is a way to counter the influence of far-right leaders who want to spread their message on the international stage,” Simon said.
Featured image: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio da Silva.
Image credit: Luiz Inácio da Silva via X
