As the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell (Pobla de Segur, 1947) experienced firsthand one of the most serious moments in recent European history: the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Now, four years into the war and with the European Union, threatened on several fronts, facing an existential challenge, Borrell speaks to ARA in his office at CIDOB, the organization he chairs.

International politics has long had an internal dimension and is part of the culture wars. And of all the conflicts on the planet, the one that arouses the most passions and causes the deepest rifts is, without a doubt, the one between Israelis and Palestinians.

After five years leading European diplomacy, Josep Borrell has assumed the presidency of CIDOB, the Barcelona Center for International Affairs. He made his debut this Saturday at a meeting of experts on the Middle East, where he called for the people of Gaza not to be forgotten. "The war in Gaza is no longer on the front pages of newspapers, and everyone is waiting to see what Trump will do tomorrow in Washington, but in the Strip the situation remains horrific, and since then, Israel has broken the ceasefire have more deaths, especially women and children, who at first," warned the Catalan socialist leader.

After five years leading European diplomacy, Josep Borrell has assumed the presidency of CIDOB, the leading international think tank based in Barcelona. He made his debut this Saturday at a meeting of experts on the Middle East, where he called for the people of Gaza not to be forgotten. "The war in Gaza is no longer on the front pages of newspapers, and everyone is waiting to see what Trump will do tomorrow in Washington, but in the Strip the situation remains horrific, and since then, Israel has broken the ceasefire have more deaths, especially women and children, who at first," warned the Catalan socialist leader.

Josep Borrell has been criticized more than once for his Europeanism having Eurocentric, colonialist and racist tendencies. This is what he was criticized for when in 2018, as Foreign Minister in Pedro Sánchez's first government, he said that the United States has "very little history" because the only thing they had done before their independence was "kill four Indians" or when in 2022, as head of diplomacy of the European Union, He called "most of the world" a "jungle" as opposed to the European "garden". The Catalan politician has once again displayed his vision of history and the world in a speech at the Pontifical University of Comillas in Madrid. The Jesuit institution has named him an honorary doctor this Wednesday and some of the examples he has given to thank him could grate on some of his detractors.

"As President of this Parliament, in 2007, I had the opportunity to tell Putin face to face, after the murder of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya: 'We will not exchange human rights for your gas'". This sentence, pronounced in the European Parliament last Tuesday by Josep Borrell, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, drew a unanimous round of applause from MEPs, some of whom even rose to their feet, and was the highlight of the day. It was undoubtedly the high point of Borrell's career. The Catalan politician, who was received with certain scepticism at European institutions when he arrived in 2019, has seen his position strengthened and has managed to become the voice of an unusually united European Union in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But this was not always the case.

Josep Borrell already knew he was treading on hostile territory when he decided to go to Moscow on Thursday as the EU's High Representative. The recent imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalni was added to the string of conflicts that mark the relationship between Russia and the EU. But Borrell decided to stick to the journey. And it has not turned out as he had hoped. Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, used the press conference as a trap to score a victory in the geopolitical struggle, and not only in terms of vaccination against the coronavirus. Lavrov not only got Borrell to praise Russia's Sputnik vaccine, but he also stabbed the former Spanish minister in the back when he attacked him on one of his weak points. He reproached him for imprisoning political prisoners in Catalonia to defend himself against accusations of the poisoning and imprisonment of Navalni. And Borrell was undeterred.

Until now it was clear that the existence of political prisoners and Catalan pro-independence exiles had a reputational cost for Spain, but this Friday it has been European diplomacy as a whole that has had to pay the price. The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, travelled to Moscow yesterday to convey to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, the unease of the EU-27 over the imprisonment of opposition leader Aleksei Navalni and the detention of thousands of his supporters. Lavrov, an old dog of international diplomacy, replied by reproaching Borrell for the existence of prisoners in Spain for a political question such as "organising a referendum in Catalonia". "The Spanish authorities asked not that their courts not be questioned and we demand the same in terms of reciprocity," Lavrov claimed.