“Fascists are stopped by guaranteeing their rights.” Irene Montero, former Minister for Equality and MEP for Podemos, has defended her candidacy for the presidency of the European Parliament with a speech marked by the denunciation of the cuts in rights that the extreme right is committing in Europe with the complicity of the traditional right, and with the demand for peace “against the criminal Putin” and the “genocidal Netanyahu”.
Montero is competing for the presidency of the European Parliament against Roberta Metsola, a conservative, anti-abortion MEP from Malta who has the support of the PP, the Socialists and the Liberals. Metsola is the outgoing president, the result of an agreement between the three political families, who agreed that half of the mandate would go to the Italian Socialist David Sassoli and the second half to Metsola in the previous legislature.
The pact for this course includes the Maltese for the first stage, and it remains to be seen which socialist would occupy the post next – there is talk of the leader of the socialists in the European Parliament, the Spanish Iratxe García, but it could also be someone from the Italian Democratic Party, the main delegation of the social democratic bench. This pact also included the vote for Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission, this Thursday, in addition to the head of European diplomacy for Kaja Kallas, the already ex-Slovenian prime minister, with a marked profile. antiputinist
“We are being irresponsibly led to war while protecting a genocidal maniac,” said Irene Montero in her speech, which was interrupted at one point by the noise from the right-wing benches: “Netanyahu could not carry out this genocide without the support of the United States and Europe. Europe cannot continue to be an accomplice to the genocidal State of Israel. Why don’t we immediately break the association agreement? Why aren’t sanctions imposed on the genocidal Netanyahu in the same way as those imposed on the criminal Putin? This hypocrisy is unbearable and will not be met with our silence. The priority of humanity at this moment is to put an end to the genocide and the illegal occupation of Palestine.”
While Montero has made a speech with a marked political profile, claiming the banners of her group, La Izquierda, Metsola has resorted to a flatter tone, claiming parliamentary sovereignty, when she is the president who does not recognize Toni Comín’s seat, despite the CJEU ruling of December 2019 that opened the doors to him and Carles Puigdemont and Clara Ponsatí.
And while Montero has pointed out the Israeli massacre in Gaza, the Maltese has limited herself to speaking of “humanity in the Middle East”, without mentioning the almost 40,000 Palestinian deaths caused by the Israeli offensive, while mentioning “kyiv and Chisinau”, the capitals of Ukraine and Moldova, countries that are on the threshold of the EU.
In his speech, Metsola said that “democracy must be represented and lived. They will look to us to be leaders, to our values, to the rule of law, to the invasion of Ukraine, to humanity in the Middle East, to the need to hold on to our commitments, as a firm social pillar and to ensure that no one is left behind.”
Montero, for his part, addressed the political families that support Metsola, the Popular Party, the Socialists and the Liberals: “You say you are defending a cordon sanitaire around the extreme right. The elections in France leave us with a democratic and anti-fascist lesson: the extreme right is defeated by the left. Neoliberal policies and the narrative of moderation not only do not stop the extreme right, but they roll out a red carpet for it. Fascists are stopped by guaranteeing rights.”
And he added: “From the European Left group we believe that now is the time to make a political commitment to increase the forces of peace, of the end of genocide, of the right to housing, of public services, of labour rights, of feminism, of anti-racism, of anti-fascism and of social justice. We must increase the strength of ethical principles, the strength of hope in the face of the law of the strongest. The present must serve to build a Europe of rights and a better world and for this we ask for your vote.”
The Left group, which includes Podemos, part of Sumar –Estrella Galán– and EH Bildu, is also the political family of La France Insoumise, Syriza, Die Linke and Sin Feinn, for example, and has historically presented candidates for the presidency of the European Parliament, despite the fact that the agreements of the main political families have led to them always ending up being socialists and popular.
In 2019 and 2021 the candidate was the current Minister of Children and Youth, Sira Rego (IU), while in 2014 it was Pablo Iglesias, then Secretary General of Podemos, who stood.
“The Left, the European left group, is putting forward this candidacy to defend a Europe of peace, which is committed to ending the genocide against the Palestinian people, a feminist, anti-racist, anti-fascist Europe of rights and social justice,” said Montero: “A great consensus of war is being imposed on the peoples of Europe, just as 15 years ago a great coalition of austerity was imposed on us, the consequences of which we have not yet recovered from.”
Metsola, for his part, has called for “the opportunity to dream of a future in which our power has no limits, that is what Europe means to us. My passion for the European project has not diminished. In this last term we have learned that the future is anything but predictable. Whatever comes, we will be ready to face the results when they are presented to us.”
The Maltese woman wanted to remember her predecessor: “Two and a half years ago I was here before David Sassoli passed away and I promised that I would pay tribute to his legacy.” However, unlike Sassoli, Metsola has left Toni Comín without a seat for the moment. She added: “I will work to redouble my efforts to unite forces. We have to rationalise our functioning so that this Parliament is the political Chamber that we want it to be and continue to improve the powers of control and investigation and address the other institutional imbalances that remain: it has to be a strong Parliament, it is what the treaties want from us and what the citizens want, parliamentarism must be strengthened.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
