Sánchez denounces the attacks on the UN: "It is an attempt at planned demolition"

WashingtonThe Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, has taken to the podium of the United Nations General Assembly to defend multilateralism at a time when "different governments, present here, disregard or intend to dismantle" the organization that hosts them. Without explicitly mentioning him, the socialist referred to Donald Trump, who was already back in Washington this Wednesday. Before Sánchez spoke, the US president had received his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, who preferred the White House to the UN headquarters.

"I come to reclaim principles and ambitions that inspired the creation of this organization 81 years ago," stated Sánchez, who lamented that since then "the world has not changed for the better, but for the worse." The socialist described the economic cuts by the Trump administration to the body as "a planned and coordinated attempt at demolition."

The Spanish president evoked the approval, in 2018, of the 2030 Agenda as a moment when the majority of countries saw sustainability and equality as an integral part of the future of humanity and not as "ideological positions." Ideas that now, according to him, "are not only questioned: they are attacked" by governments that "want to return us to a dark past."

As expected, the Spanish leader took advantage of the UN loudspeaker to stand as one of the last champions of progressivism amidst the rise of the far right. Sánchez highlighted how Spain is rowing against this reactionary current that wants to undo the international order established after the Second World War.

"We have refused to increase our military spending to 5% of GDP and we have done everything in our power to avoid aggressions contrary to the United Nations Charter, by sanctioning the Russian aggressors, imposing an arms embargo on Netanyahu's government in Israel, preventing our territory from being used to deploy an aggression contrary to international law, and condemning without nuance the genocide that Netanyahu continues to perpetrate in Gaza," the Spanish president enumerated.

Sánchez has recounted each of these milestones as proof of his left-wing pedigree while today in Madrid, Maricarmen, an 87-year-old neighbor with reduced mobility, was evicted from her home. The eviction was carried out after the property owner rejected an anonymous person's offer to pay the difference of the rent increase demanded from the elderly woman. The investment fund Urbagestión proposed a raise of 1,650 euros, compared to the 500 euros the woman had religiously paid until now. In the press conference prior to the speech at the UN, the socialist blamed the city council and the Community of Madrid, both in the hands of the PP.

In national terms, Sánchez also mentioned the migration crisis in Ceuta, which he cited as an example of prioritizing human rights over fear. Although the leader acknowledged that the city is suffering "one of the most significant crises of recent years," Spain will not yield in the defense of its principles and will not fall into the temptation of "turning the migrant into an enemy."

The turn of a woman at the head of the UN

To conclude his speech, which lasted just over fifteen minutes, Sánchez called for the next UN Secretary-General to be a Latin American woman. "The time has come," he stated, pointing out that, in 80 years of history, the UN has never had a woman at its helm, an inconsistency for an institution that aims to represent all of humanity.

The Spanish president framed his proposal within a broader defense of feminism and as one more response to the reactionary wave. In making this call, Sánchez championed the Costa Rican Rebeca Grynspan, one of the main names currently being mentioned to succeed António Guterres once his term ends in December.