Spain Notes, Oct 23: Israel-Gaza + Sánchez parliament + record migrants in Canary Islands
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1/ Sánchez said he had spoken to Netanyahu (Israel confirmed it) about Israel’s right to self-defence. “Israel’s victory over Hamas would be a victory for the entire world”, said Netanyahu’s office. Sánchez said it should be “within the limits of international and humanitarian law” and expressed concern for the situation in Gaza. Macron and Rutte will visit Netanyahu this week. No word on a face-to-face with Sánchez.
2/ His Minister for Social Rights, Belarra (Sumar), is still defending her position, tweeting: “Israel has shown an absolute lack of humanity over the past weeks. Asking Netanyahu to comply with international law he is contemptuous of is useless”. She wants economic sanctions and an arms embargo against Israel.
3/ Both ABC and El País see problems for the situation in Ukraine because of the new situation in Israel-Gaza. Putin gets a break from global media attention on Ukraine, writes ABC, and maybe even a bigger break if the Hamas attack and Israeli reaction relativise his own war crimes there. The Russian president benefits from the new conflict, says El País, not least because the US is now distributing war supplies between Ukraine and Israel.
4/ The IDF stopped a TVE news crew from doing their live report in front of some burnt out cars somewhere in Israel yesterday.
5/ As seemed likely, former Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias has indeed achieved his Palestine reporting crowdfuding target: €54,000 in a day or so.
6/ The PP is complaining about parlimanent being “closed” while Sánchez jaunts around for the Middle East crisis and negotiates his reappointment as PM with Puigdemont. “It’s an interim government, not an interim parliament”, said party spokeswoman Gamarra: “we demand a date for the confidence vote [in Sánchez]”. The Speaker of Congress, Armengol, is also socialist.
7/ El País also notes that the parliamentary lethargy, while constitutionally normal, now means Spain still does not have a proper government three months after the general election “in an ever more unforeseeable global environment”. Almost a month after the King named Sánchez as the new candidate for PM, the silence surrounding whatever is being negotiated “is starting to be worrying”, says the paper.
8/ The Objective reports that the prosecutor’s office in the Canary Islands is now being overwhelmed by the number of African migrants turning up on boats over the past few weeks.
9/ Spanish Coastguard figures for the weekend show 1,000 new arrivals on Saturday, along with a new one-boat record for the islands, of 320 people.
10/ Vox wants Spain to launch a naval blockade to stop the boats arriving.
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