For certain currents of the European left, military support for Ukraine is not self-evident. If they were discreet at the time of the invasion, a year later, their reservations or their hostility are expressed more. The support given to a country at war, the rise in power of NATO, the partnership with the United States considered imperialist and the frontal opposition with Moscow clash with the credo of these political movements on the left of social democracy, committed to anti-militarism and anti-Americanism. This causes tensions within political formations, even governments, where several traditions coexist.
Arms deliveries to kyiv, the arrest warrant issued for war crimes against Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court, the text of China on the “Political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis”, renamed “peace plan” for the occasion, were seized as so many opportunities to express their disagreements. The Beijing Document “may be a solution”assured in France the coordinator of La France insoumise (LFI), Manuel Bompard, on March 21.
On this point as on many others, the Spaniards of Podemos are in agreement with their partners of LFI. Red TV, the online television channel launched in early March by the founder of this party, Pablo Iglesias, devoted one of its first broadcasts to the “Chinese peace plan”, “the most sensible initiative to achieve a ceasefire”. On the set, to comment on it, was the former head of the Russian Today channel in Spanish, Inna Afinogenova, collaborator of the new channel. According to her, Western press reports on Beijing’s plan seemed “written directly by an official of the United States Department of State” for who “we must continue to kill ourselves” in Ukraine.
“A shame” for Podemos
These positions are shared by a good part of the left-wing coalition in power in Spain, of which Podemos is a part, and it is not going smoothly within the government of the socialist of Pedro Sanchez. Fiercely opposed to NATO, which they tend to present as the main responsible for the war, the parties united under the Unidas Podemos label have opposed all arms deliveries voted for by Parliament for a year. They refused to condemn the invasion of Ukraine and regularly criticized Pedro Sanchez’s decisions regarding Ukraine.
In October 2022, learning of the 26% increase in military spending in the 2023 budget, Podemos’ spokesman in Parliament, Pablo Echenique, denounced ” a shame “ et “the military fury of NATO” Who “stir up” the war with forever “more guns”. This party also abstained in the vote on Finland and Sweden joining NATO and the neo-communists of the United Left (IU) voted against. And the tone continues to rise against the Socialist Party.
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