The Secretary of State for the Government’s 2030 Agenda, Enrique Santiago, believes that sending weapons to Ukraine “is useless” in the war with Russia. In his opinion, the European countries should not be helping the Ukrainian resistance with ammunition, since that could “difficult” an “urgent” diplomatic solution. He said it in March and repeated it in April, when he described the decision to continue sending material to Ukraine as “incomprehensible”, and pointed to NATO’s “expansionist” policy as one of the causes of the invasion of Ukraine unilaterally initiated by Vladimir Putin. .
Santiago, who is the general secretary of the PCE, will protest this Sunday against NATO, in a demonstration promoted by himself with the approval of United We Can. It will be the only high-ranking government official who will go, because today no minister is expected. And he will also participate in a presentation at the alternative summit for peace organized by the «NATO No» platform.
But his disagreement does not end there, within an Executive that is organizing the summit of the Atlantic Alliance against which he rebels (from within). The next day, Santiago is going to appear in Congress “to explain his position on the decision of the President of the Government to send weapons” to help the Ukrainians’ resistance against the Russian invasion “from the perspective of development objectives sustainable”. Thus he appears in the third item on the agenda of the Joint Commission for the coordination and monitoring of the Spanish Strategy to achieve the objectives of sustainable development, which has already been sent to the deputies.
Belarra’s number two has agreed to attend, at the request of the PP, to report the “position” of the Executive, which he is radically against. This movement bypasses the Government’s guideline that stipulates that matters related to foreign action can only be reported by the Chief Executive and the Foreign Minister.
Two written responses from the Government to deputy José Ángel Alonso demonstrate this. This PP parliamentarian asked the Secretary of State and the Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, if they thought that the shipment of weapons was “wrong”. And the written answers, to which EL MUNDO has accessed, are very clear: neither one nor the other can answer on foreign affairs on behalf of the Government, since that power only corresponds to Sánchez and José Manuel Albares.
So, can Santiago appear and, from a “sustainable development” perspective, defend his thesis on behalf of the Government (that sending arms to Ukraine is useless and that NATO has contributed to the outbreak of this war due to its desire to expand to the east)?
According to the official response of the Executive, it should not. “As established in article 6 of Law 2/2014 of the Action and the Foreign Service of the State, it is up to the President of the Government to determine the foreign policy guidelines and ensure their compliance,” says the document, sent by the Ministry of State of Relations with the Courts and with official letterhead.
Likewise, “the Foreign Minister, within the framework of the superior leadership of the Government and its president, plans and executes the foreign policy of the State, and coordinates foreign action.” And not the Ministry of Social Rights. For this reason, the Government does not answer Alonso’s questions in substance, but “refers to what was stated by the president” in the Chamber and “to the appearances of the Foreign Minister.”
Enrique Santiago reiterates that his postulates are the traditional ones of the PCE and “nobody should be surprised” that his party goes to the NATO counter-summit and asks for its dissolution. This is how he expressed it, this Friday, during an act held in Pamplona.
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