Zapatero predicts the decline of the far right in Portugal as it happened in Spain – Observer
The former Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, this Monday foreshadowed a decline of the extreme right in Portugal, similar to what has already happened in Spain, where it also initially grew.
In Spain, the extreme right – it arrived first than in Portugal – is in decline and it will be the same here”, said Rodríguez Zapatero, guest speaker at the Next Left conference, promoted by the Portuguese Socialist Party, with the theme “They will not pass! The imperative of combating right-wing extremism”, which took place this Monday in Lisbon.
The former Spanish head of government said the momentum of inequalities that the far right has seized on – growing first in the United States and then spreading, with the 2008 financial crisis and then the pandemic crisis – shows how the populism and extremism followed with fear.
Referring to the former presidents of the United States and Brazil, he predicted that Donald Trump “and his student highlighted, [Jair] Bolsonaro, lost and will not come back”, but underlined that it is necessary to “prevent and be attentive”.
He therefore asked that it be affirmed “the condition of one humanity”demonstrating against the description of immigrants and defending the right to integration and universal rights, because it is with “equality, peace, coexistence, respect, words that are the principles of democracy” and also with “the fight for culture” that will be possible to “stop the extreme right”.
In a speech lasting more than half an hour, at the conference organized jointly with the European Foundation for Progressive Studies (FEPS) and the Karl-Renner Institute, Zapatero left three ideas for action, the first being “strengthened the unity of the world’s progressive organizationssuch as the Socialist International of Spain and Portugal”.
At this point, the also former leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), wanted the realization of “a great summit” of the center-left parties and also advocated that “you have to talk to the center-right“, considering it “essential”.
Zapatero considers that the use of social networks fragments dialogue, which “should be face to face” and also argued that it is not advised “to let ourselves be carried away by the most conservative discourses”.
In the second idea that he left to an audience of a few hundred people, the former Prime Minister of Spain recalled that the crises – financial 2008, pandemic, climate change – are global and therefore it is necessary “to work as the Charter of United Nations” when referring to “uniting all nations”.
Europe cannot close itself off”, he said, because “if there is no cooperation, crises cannot be overcome”.
“Cooperation, cooperation and cooperation, not competition and confrontation“, he underlined.
Finally, Zapatero asked that more attention be paid to inequalities, where the extreme right would be strengthened, and that balance and “fairer redistribution” be promoted.
“That depends on us, not on the extreme right”, he defended, recalling that what happened in the post-World War II era was this fairer redistribution and that “this was a time when democracy and socialism made the most progress”.