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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (centre) poses for a family picture during the summit \u2018In defence of democracy\u2019 held in Barcelona. (EPA Images pic)
\nBARCELONA: Leftist leaders from around the globe met in Barcelona on Saturday to show their determination to \u201cprotect democracy\u201d, as the challenge of far-right politics grows in many countries.<\/p>\n
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, one of the biggest critics of the US and Israel\u2019s bombing campaigns in the Middle East, told attendees at the opening that \u201cdemocracy cannot be taken for granted\u201d before ending the day with his slogan \u201cno to war\u201d.<\/p>\n
He was joined by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said she would put forward a motion against military intervention in Cuba, and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.<\/p>\n
Sanchez and Sheinbaum warmly greeted each other on the Mexican leader\u2019s first visit to Spain since taking office in October 2024, though she insisted there had never been a \u201cdiplomatic crisis\u201d between the two nations.<\/p>\n
Ties were strained in 2019 when Mexico insisted Spain apologise for historical abuses during the Spanish conquest and colonisation of the Americas.<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s King Felipe VI last month acknowledged \u201ca lot of abuse\u201d had happened in the colonial period in the Americas.<\/p>\n
Call for UN reform<\/p>\n
Sanchez called for reform of the United Nations a day after he had urged a reshaped multilateral order to challenge \u201cthose who consider it dead or work to undermine its foundations\u201d.<\/p>\n
Several attendees insisted the meeting, held the same day as a meeting of far-right European leaders in Milan in Italy, was not an anti-Trump jamboree.<\/p>\n
It follows the defeat of Hungarian nationalist leader Viktor Orban in a general election on Sunday, seen as a setback for Europe\u2019s far-right parties that had looked to him as a model.<\/p>\n
Progressives have hailed the result as proof that entrenched populist governments can be defeated at the ballot box.<\/p>\n
The Barcelona event was launched by Brazil and Spain in 2024 after far-right parties made significant gains in European Parliament elections.<\/p>\n
The first two editions of the event were held at the UN and the previous one was held in Chile last year.<\/p>\n
Sanchez, in power since 2018, has emerged as a prominent figure for Europe\u2019s disillusioned progressives, who see him as one of the few remaining openly leftist voices in a continent increasingly dominated by right-wing politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (centre) poses for a family picture during the summit \u2018In defence of democracy\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4680,1970,4058,4681,4482,4290,205,4682,4683,17,4684],"class_list":{"0":"post-7220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-barcelona-summit","9":"tag-claudia-sheinbaum","10":"tag-far-right","11":"tag-global-politics","12":"tag-leftist-leaders","13":"tag-lula-da-silva","14":"tag-pedro-sanchez","15":"tag-progressive-alliance","16":"tag-protect-democracy","17":"tag-spain","18":"tag-un-reform"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7220","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=7220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}