{"id":6627,"date":"2026-04-17T21:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/6627\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T21:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:44:09","slug":"sanchez-lula-lead-work-for-peace-and-equality-at-gathering-of-global-progressive-leaders-in-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/6627\/","title":{"rendered":"S\u00e1nchez, Lula Lead ‘Work for Peace’ and Equality at Gathering of Global Progressive Leaders in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arriving in Spain<\/a> on Friday for a two-day visit that will center on a gathering of progressive leaders from more than 100 political parties across five continents, Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva emphasized that the summit was not “an anti-Trump meeting.”<\/p>\n

But the contrast between US President Donald Trump’s violent foreign and domestic policies and the international meeting, which will focus on wage inequality<\/a> and electoral strategy for progressives<\/a>, was unmistakable as Spanish President Pedro S\u00e1nchez opened<\/a> the gathering at a press conference in Barcelona<\/a> on Friday. <\/p>\n

“We want to double our efforts to work for peace and for a reinforced multilateral order. While others open wounds, we want to mend them and cure them,\u201d said S\u00e1nchez.<\/p>\n

Da Silva\u2014who is commonly called Lula\u2014and S\u00e1nchez, as well as other leaders who will be attending the weekend event, have spoken out forcefully against Trump’s policies and the rise of the far right in the US, Germany, Italy, and other European countries. <\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez has refused<\/a> to allow US fighter planes to use Spanish military bases for missions in the US-Israeli war on Iran and closed<\/a> the country’s airspace to American military aircraft\u2014plus doubled down on his condemnation of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war even after the US president threatened<\/a> Spain with a trade<\/a> embargo. <\/p>\n

Lula expressed solidarity<\/a> with Pope Leo this week after the pontiff denounced<\/a> the Iran war, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who will also attend the meeting, took aim<\/a> last month at Trump’s claim that her country is the “epicenter of cartel violence”\u2014blaming the US for the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico. <\/p>\n

Lula emphasized that the 3,000 attendees of the summit, which will include the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy<\/a> as well as a gathering called the Global Progressive Mobilization on Saturday, will “discuss the state of democracy, to see what went wrong and what we have to do to repair it.”<\/p>\n

The Brazilian president added that “Brazil<\/a> and Spain are side by side in the trenches together.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are an example that it is possible to find solutions to problems without giving into the empty promises of extremism<\/a>,” said Lula. “Democracy must go beyond just voting and bring real benefits to people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez added that “in a world that doubts and fragments, Spain and Brazil open a new chapter convinced that our countries have something the world needs: the strength to build bridges where others raise walls.”<\/p>\n

The Global Progressive Mobilization meeting will include roundtables dedicated to discussing economic inequality<\/a> and other issues at a time when, as one report showed<\/a> earlier this month, the richest 0.1% of people on the planet are stashing more than $2.8 trillion in tax havens\u2014more than the wealth owned by the entire bottom 50% of humanity. <\/p>\n

The economic hardships of working people have only been exacerbated by the war on Iran, which has sent global energy prices soaring. <\/p>\n

US Sen. Chris Murphy<\/a> (D-Conn.) is the only federal US official planning to attend the gathering, while New York City<\/a> Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2014who has swiftly taken steps toward enacting<\/a> a universal childcare program and announced<\/a> a plan to tax second homes valued at over $5 million since taking office in January, is scheduled to participate virtually. <\/p>\n

Also on Saturday, Lula and S\u00e1nchez will host the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy, a summit first held in 2024 with the aim of combating “extremism, polarization, and misinformation.”<\/p>\n

European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and leaders from Albania, Ghana, and Lithuania<\/a> are among those attending the meeting on democracy. <\/p>\n

Lula said the large number of attendees is evidence that progressive governments are winning more influence around the world despite the rise of authoritarian political parties. <\/p>\n

“Our flock is growing. We must give hope to the world,” said<\/a> Lula. “Otherwise, what happened with [Nazi leader Adolf] Hitler is going to happen.”<\/p>\n

Economist Gabriel Zucman, who joined<\/a> Mamdani this week in publishing an op-ed calling for an end to regressive tax systems and highlighting a proposal for a 2% tax on the wealth of those with more than \u20ac100 million, or $117 million, expressed hope that the global left is amassing power by building a cooperative international movement.<\/p>\n

“The good news is that, from Zohran Mamdani<\/a> and [Congresswoman] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a> in New York to Pedro S\u00e1nchez in Spain, from Lula in Brazil to [Green Party<\/a> Leader] Zack Polanski in the UK, we may be seeing the early signs of a new cross-border alliance taking shape against global oligarchy<\/a>,” said<\/a> Zucman. “And I have no doubt that in this fight\u2014the defining battle of the 21st century\u2014democracy will prevail. See you in Barcelona this weekend to press ahead!” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arriving in Spain on Friday for a two-day visit that will center on a gathering of progressive leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[193,66,31,4061,205,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-6627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-democracy","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva","12":"tag-pedro-sanchez","13":"tag-spain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}