The PP warns Albares that "he is the wrong enemy" and the minister accuses them of only seeking to wear down the Government

MADRID, 8 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The PP spokeswoman in the Foreign Commission of Congress, Valentina Martínez, warned the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, on Wednesday that the Government "is the wrong enemy" after making it ugly that its coalition partners did not attend the week past the 40th anniversary of Spain's entry into NATO.

During the control session in the plenary session of Congress, Martínez lamented the "embarrassing spectacle" that "a part of the Government boycotted a Government act" given that none of the United Podemos ministers attended the act presided over by the King Felipe VI and which was attended, among others, by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg.

Likewise, he has refuted that the PSOE and Podemos are separated by "testimonial differences", as Sánchez maintained, claiming that in relation to NATO and defense spending they maintain "antagonistic conceptions of the world" and warning of the "cost to credibility" of Spain that have differences in foreign policy.

For all these reasons, he has questioned whether the Government is "up to" the challenge of hosting the NATO summit on June 29 and 30, when "the eyes of the West will be on Madrid".

Albares has agreed with her that Spain will be the focus of world attention but has taken the opportunity to reproach what in her opinion is a "double yardstick" by the PP, since the anniversary ceremony was not attended by former president Mariano Rajoy, as did Felipe González, José María Aznar and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

“I am sure that he had well-founded reasons for not having attended such an important event,” he commented, thus avoiding “assuming bad faith when someone is absent” as, in his opinion, the PP is doing with Podemos.

Thus, he has accused the PP of continuing where they were 40 years ago, when they supported entry into NATO but asked for abstention because "they don't care about hurting Spain if that can somehow erode the government in some way." "Today they are still the same, they don't care about damaging the image of Spain if they think that this can wear down the government a bit," he insisted.

The PP deputy has defended herself lamenting that with her words the minister "again makes the wrong enemy." "It is his partners who have accused him of prevaricating and handing out 37 million in contracts by hand", referring to the organization of the NATO summit, and recalling that the Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda and leader of the PCE, Enrique Santiago, has encouraged to demonstrate against the event.

"He has had the shoulder of the PP for weeks but he only elbows us", he has reproached Minister Martínez, for whom the Government does not want the support of the popular ones but feels "very comfortable in the confrontation". "They don't want to agree on anything because it would force them to think about what they want to agree on," he said.

For his part, Albares has asked him to read the newspapers, after the PP deputy told him that he has not brought the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO to the Council of Ministers because his government partners do not support him.

The minister has clarified that if he does not do so, it is because there is still no accession protocol since "Turkey is blocking it". "Get informed, Your Honor," he insisted, assuring that "the summit is going to be a success" and blaming the PP that "they don't want to put their shoulders to the wheel, they just want to wear down the Government."