Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera, the leading candidate of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) in the upcoming EU elections, urged EU citizens on Tuesday to unite to prevent a possible alliance between the European People’s Party (EPP) candidate, current European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and national-oriented forces in the European Parliament, according to Euractiv.
Here [in Spain], we know what it means to pact with the far-right, we know what it represents in terms of cutting rights, freedoms or in terms of cutting public services for those who need them most.
Ribera was referring to the coalition government of the main opposition force Partido Popular (EPP) and the VOX party in several regions of Spain.
She told the Senate headquarters in Madrid that she did not want to see a repeat of the images that occurred a few days ago, when “people waving their arms in the air in Rome and exerting their will in Brussels.” The Spanish minister was responding to comments by von der Leyen on Monday in which she left the door open for co-operation with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) after the European elections.
Ribera added that von der Leyen’s message was another reason to vote in the European elections. The latest polls showed that the national-orientated forces could take the third place in the European Parliament after the EPP and the Socialists and Democrats (S&D).
