Gustavo Petro compares the rise of "fascism" in Spain and Europe with Hitler's rise to power

He believes that the Spanish left "does not know what to do" in the face of the advance of the extreme right

MADRID, 17 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has warned of the growth of the extreme right and fascism in Europe and in Spain in particular and has compared it to the rise to power of the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler in Germany.

"Today we also have a European left that does not know exactly what to do and fascism is advancing. I saw it in the streets of Madrid. I saw it organize against me, for being a Latin American, for my café con leche skin, for (being) from left," Petro said during a speech at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation during his recent visit to Germany.

"Clearly helped by the Colombian extreme right, which is bloodthirsty, which has committed genocide in Colombia, but I also saw it organize itself in the streets, leave parliament, irrational, and the Spanish right followed its example," he added.

Despite all of this, Petro considers that the situation is similar to that of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933. "It is the reality that is advancing and that if electoral circumstances are propitious it becomes decisive and that is how it was in 1933. Capital gives him the power out of fear," he said.

In his historical review, Petro also said that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 led to the weakening of the left. "After a great neoliberal night, as we call it, neoconservative, others say, that for decades, three or four decades, has dominated the world, fundamentally from precisely that geographical location and the demolition of the Berlin wall, brought a wave neoconservative movement, a destruction of the labor movement on a world scale, a formidable weakening and then a loss of value of the left", he pointed out.

The Colombian opposition has already criticized this "defense of communism" and that it has not considered the fall of the Iron Curtain as a milestone for freedom and democracy.

"Petro regrets the fall of the Berlin wall and despises liberal democracy and freedom. So the president yearns for the arbitrary, corrupt and violent communist model that for years only distributed death and pain. Let's defend freedom and democracy," he said. Senator Miguel Uribe on Twitter.

Another senator, María Fernanda Cabal, has criticized "Petro's speech in Germany defending communism that he disguises as progressivism." "It is still dangerous. He speaks of fascism with absolute ignorance and accuses Colombia of selling 'poison' to Germany, when energy is what has allowed development," she argued.