MADRID – The far-right Vox party (Patriots for Europe/PfE) does not support the tariffs applied by US President Donald Trump on European (and Spanish) products, the leader of the extreme-right formation, Santiago Abascal, said on Sunday.
Shortly before a Vox event in the city of Valladolid (Northeast), the controversial Abascal, who was among the guests at Trump’s inauguration ceremony in January, denied that his party supports the ‘trade war’ launched by the Republican leader, RTVE reported.
Although Vox, the third force in the Spanish parliament, shares Trump’s patriotic ‘MAGA’ vision and often speaks in the same tone of ‘making Spain great again’, in this case it takes a contrary view.
On the other hand, Abascal harshly criticised the Spanish prime minister and leader of the Socialist Party (PSOE/S&D), Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the Spanish People’s Party (Partido Popular/EPP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whom he reproached for their attitude of “anti-Trump champions”.
“What Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo are doing at the moment is what puts us (Spain and Europe) on the brink of tariffs, but you will never find anyone from Vox defending tariffs against Spanish products”, Abascal stressed.
In his view, instead of attacking Trump, Sánchez and Núñez Feijóo should follow the example of Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni (Fratelli d’Italia/ECR), who is very close to Trump’s positions.
Italy, Abascal pointed out, can probably avoid US tariffs because Meloni is not an “antagonistic person” to Trump, but quite the opposite, offering to facilitate dialogue between Washington and Brussels, he stated.
Meanwhile, at a political event in Santander (North), Sánchez on Sunday called for increased European solidarity with the European countries most threatened by Russia, including the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, and “to be able to dissuade Russia” from achieving a “jus”’ peace in Ukraine.
The far-right is “all for the money”, Sánchez says
“They (these countries) need our solidarity and demand that we all increase our security capacity to be able to deter Russia”, Sánchez said.
“We must take decisive steps to guarantee and protect Europe on our own”, the Spanish PM added, referring to the urgency of strengthening European defence if the US withdraws its support for NATO and reduces its military presence in Europe.
Sánchez also harshly attacked the PP and Vox, whom he criticised for their ‘false patriotism’.
“The right wing says it’s all for the fatherland, but it’s really all for the money. Let the whole productive sector know that if tariffs are imposed, we will work for a united response from Europe to protect our workers, businesses, farmers, ranchers.”
(Fernando Heller | Euractiv.es)
