• PSOE leader re-elected to Socialist Internat’l VP post during meeting at UN
• Sees rights, equality, environment as key to multilateral response to Trump
In a speech delivered Tuesday during a meeting of the Socialist International Council at the United Nations, Spanish Socialist party (PSOE) Secretary General Pedro Sánchez called on democratic-socialist and labour parties worldwide to face the challenge posed by the unilateral and isolationist policies of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump by uniting around a new “eco-progressive multilateralism” that puts human rights, the fight against inequality, the environment and peace at the center of the world’s agenda.
Sánchez, who was re-elected to one of the four Vice-President positions of the Socialist International at the two-day meeting hosted at UN Headquarters in New York, told assembled delegates that democratic-socialist and progressive parties worldwide need to come together to reinvigorate and coordinate global action against the kind of isolationism and ultra-nationalism exemplified by the current U.S. administration since Trump’s inauguration in January.
Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Sánchez said that the election of Trump has “raised awareness” and “spurred resolve” among progressives in the United States and around the world and should be seen in Europe “as an impetus to strengthen our volition” to fight for a “fair globalization” in the face of neoliberal economic models that have failed to provide social and economic justice around the world.
Sánchez previously held a Vice-Presidency seat of the Socialist International, but after his ouster as PSOE secretary general last year in an internal party coup was replaced in that post by Javier Fernández, the interim caretaker leader of the PSOE. As a result of his successful campaign for re-election to the PSOE’s top leadership position, Sánchez was re-elected in New York to the council of the global socialist organisation, which represents 150 democratic-socialist and labour parties and political worldwide.
► Read More in Spanish at Público, El País and HuffPost …
