The focus of Spanish politics is on the Koldo case and the amnesty law, but in La Moncloa life goes on and Pedro Sánchez's international agenda is one of the issues that matter most to the president and that represents the greatest political and have provided economic satisfaction. Although there are sometimes tensions between the Ibex 35 and the government, especially due to special taxes on banks, energy companies or large fortunes, in reality Sánchez pursues an international agenda heavily focused on securing business for the large Spanish multinationals and also for other smaller companies to open businesses and consolidate their position in areas of the planet where there are great opportunities in infrastructure, telecommunications, renewable energy, water treatment, innovative agriculture and other subjects in which Spain is a world power.
In this context and at the height of Spanish politics, Sánchez has maintained his planned travel schedule and will land in Brazil at the end of this Tuesday for a two-day visit to the giant led by the progressive Lula da Silva – with stops in the political capital Brasilia and the economic capital Sao Paulo – and one day again to Chile, also led by another politician from the Latin American left like Gabriel Boric. In case there is any doubt that this harmony between the president and the business world will be maintained in the search for international business, Sánchez is traveling by plane with the president of the employers' association, Antonio Garamendi, and a group of directors of Spanish multinational companies interested in doing business. in Brazil and Chile, including former minister Pedro Duque, who now heads Hispasat.
The trip has a clear economic content, although it does not seem to be a coincidence that Sánchez chose exactly two leaders of Latin American progressivism such as Lula and Boric, while this time he does not address other surrounding countries that are in conservative hands, such as Argentina – now chaired by the right-wing extremist Javier Milei, the political antipode of the Spanish. Although Sánchez traveled to Buenos Aires to visit the Peronist Alberto Fernández, with whom he maintained a good relationship, a trip to Argentina now seems unlikely.
From a political point of view, the president has also become a reference for the democratic Latin American left – the president is a total opponent of autocrats such as the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro or the Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega – due to his clearly critical stance towards Israel's systematic bombing of Gaza. If Sánchez is in the minority in Europe with Belgium, Luxembourg and Ireland, defending a ceasefire in Gaza, in Latin America and especially with Lula Da Silva and Boric, he will find a lot of support for this position that made him Europe is the one Israel has most clearly called on Israel to stop the bombing, which has caused significant tensions with the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Where there is still distance, as Lula Da Silva's recent visit to La Moncloa showed, is the position on Ukraine, as Brazilians and other Latin Americans insist on rejecting European intervention to arm Ukrainians.
Sánchez will go to the Planalto Palace to see Lula and attend an exhibition marking the first anniversary of the attack carried out by thousands of Jair Bolsonaro's supporters in this place, the heart of Brazil's executive, legislative and judicial branches, which will undoubtedly be helpful He recalls, as he did in the White House, the rejection of the delegitimization of the election results that characterizes important parts of the extreme right around the world.
From the point of view of economic agreements, Sánchez and Lula Da Silva are two of the presidents who have pushed most for the signing of the EU-Mercosur deal, which was the closest ever last December, but France's resistance weakened it and now the farmers' movements across Europe against what they see as unfair competition with products from other countries are significantly reducing the prospect of progress on this issue, which has been stagnating for 20 years.
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But the presence of Spanish companies in Brazil and Chile is very strong, and Sánchez is working with several businessmen to consolidate it. The president will also symbolically visit one of the most important construction projects in Brazil, the expansion of the Sao Paulo subway, which is being led by the Spanish company Acciona.
Brazil, the region's great political and economic giant, is Spain's most important market in Latin America. He is the second investor there and his companies are valued at $26 billion. “The situation was not easy with Bolsonaro, but now with Lula there is a chance,” summarizes La Moncloa. “Your government is developing major public investment projects in the areas of health, energy, water and housing worth 300 billion euros. It is a very relevant economic trip, which is why the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, accompanies the President.”
Spanish companies are also strongly represented in Chile, a much smaller country, and Sánchez will also strive for more symbolic political aspects with Boric, with whom he has a very good relationship. While both organized a joint tribute to Salvador Allende in New York as part of the UN Assembly, in Santiago de Chile Sánchez will celebrate 8M, International Women's Day, with an event in the municipality of La Pintana, a popular neighborhood in the capital. Ultimately, the president will return to Spain on Saturday, theoretically with the amnesty law already passed and with a slightly better plan from the legislature, although without a clear idea of what dimensions the Koldo case will reach. The president will appear before the press with both Lula and Boric and from there will have to give explanations on the Spanish news that will accompany him at all times on the trip at a particularly sensitive time in his term of office.
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