EASTORA REPORT | Pedro Sánchez says Spain will take political direction from Madrid, not Washington or Tel Aviv, as he warns that Europe is being weakened from within by an increasingly coordinated far-right movement.
“Spain is governed from Spain, not from Washington. Not from Tel Aviv, of course,” the Spanish prime minister said Monday at the World in Progress forum in Barcelona.
Sánchez argued that for the far right, confrontation is not merely a route to power but an objective in itself. He warned that traditional conservative parties risk strengthening those forces when they normalize their positions and allow their language to move into the political mainstream.
His broader argument was that Europe’s weakness is not only external. Political fragmentation at home, he suggested, can be just as damaging as pressure from abroad.
Sánchez linked the continent’s vulnerability to the war in the Middle East and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, describing the conflict as illegal and saying higher fuel prices had already cost Europeans an additional €100 billion this year.
His answer was greater European coordination.
He pointed to joint gas purchases during the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as proof that collective action can work. “When Europe is united, Europe wins,” he said.
Sánchez also invoked Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday, contrasting a cosmopolitan Europe built on cross-border ties with the nationalism and hatred that later destroyed that order. The reference was a warning against allowing fragmentation to become normal again.
At home, he defended Spain’s economic record, arguing that the country had shown it could grow, create jobs and reduce its deficit and public debt without dismantling public policies.
He also rejected the idea that the European Union is in decline, calling it “a moral beacon for humanity” and a safeguard for human rights, democracy, cohesion and progress.
For Sánchez, the message was clear: Spain should not be governed from foreign capitals, and Europe should not surrender its future to forces that profit from division.