The fourth edition of the forum, promoted in 2024 by Brazil and Spain, coincides with a meeting of leaders and supporters of the European right in Milan
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stated this Saturday (17) that it is necessary to work to “protect and strengthen” democracy at a meeting of international left-wing leaders in Barcelona, where the presence of President Claudia Sheinbaum highlighted the thaw in relations between Spain and Mexico.
“The context is clear, democracy cannot be taken for granted. We see attacks on the multilateral system, one attempt after another to challenge the rules of International Law and a dangerous normalization of the use of force”, declared Sánchez during the opening speech of the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy.
In front of the international leaders present – such as the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the South African Cyril Ramaphosa and the Colombian Gustavo Petro –, the Spaniard highlighted the willingness of the participants to “do whatever is necessary to protect and strengthen the democratic system”.
The fourth edition of the forum, promoted in 2024 by Brazil and Spain, coincides with a meeting of leaders and supporters of the European right in Milan.
“It is not enough to resist, we have to propose”, added Sánchez, for whom the time has also come for the UN “to be renewed, reformed” and “led by a woman”.
Among the most anticipated leaders in Barcelona was the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheimbaum, who is making her first trip to the European continent since taking office in October 2024.
His presence also represents a new step in the advancement of relations between the two countries, which have entered a period of tension with Mexico’s demand for an apology for the Spanish conquest of the Americas.
After recent diplomatic friction, the two governments have adopted gestures of détente in recent months. King Felipe VI of Spain acknowledged in March that there had been abuses during the conquest.
“There is no diplomatic crisis, there never has been. What is very important is that the strength of the original peoples for our homeland is recognized”, declared Sheinbaum before the meeting.
During the event, the Mexican president defended her country in which there was no shortage of references to historical relations with Spain.
“I come from a people who recognize their origins in the great original cultures, those that were silenced, enslaved and plundered, but that were never defeated, because there are memories that cannot be conquered and roots that can never be uprooted”, stated Sheinbaum.
She also announced that Mexico will host the next Meeting in Defense of Democracy and proposed that the current edition approve “a declaration against military intervention in Cuba”.
The meeting, promoted by two leaders who stood out on the global stage for positions that were often contrary to the policies of American President Donald Trump, does not want to be considered an anti-Trump meeting, according to the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro.
“It is a summit for an alternative in the world, for, not against. It is a kind of lighthouse that, in the midst of confusion, misunderstanding and global disorder dangerous for all humanity, draws a line, a kind of arrow that follows a direction, the direction of life, not the path of death”, he stated before the meeting.
The meeting also coincides with the ‘Global Progressive Mobilization’ (GPM) forum, a meeting of left-wing forces, trade union movements and thinkers that takes place in parallel in Barcelona.
In the closing session, this Saturday, Sánchez – who is also president of the Socialist International – and Lula should speak, among others.
With the meetings, the Spanish head of government reinforces his opposition to Trump, with whom he argued over military spending and the war in Iran, and to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the target of his harsh criticism, first for the war in Gaza and then for the conflict in Lebanon.
