Armando G. Tejeda
Correspondent
La Jornada Newspaper
Thursday, December 12, 2024, p. 22
Madrid. The Spanish government, made up of the coalition of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) and Sumar, and chaired by Pedro Sánchez, decided to approve in the last Council of Ministers a series of State decorations, which on this occasion will go to the Prime Minister of Italy, the far-right Giorgia Meloni, who will receive the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic.
Just a few months ago, the Spanish president described Meloni as fascist and to belong far-right international; However, it has now become one of its allies in the European Union (EU), with which it negotiated the appointments of the advisors of the current European Commission (EC).
The highest recognitions of the Spanish State were approved in a collegiate session, in which, as usual, all the ministers with portfolio participated, both those from the PSOE and those from the Sumar coalition, in which there are both representatives of the Communist Party Spanish (PCE) and Izquierda Unida as the currents in Catalonia, Madrid and Galicia of this platform of leftist parties.
In addition to Meloni, the Spanish government will also award the distinctions to the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, and the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, who is, among other things, the brain of migration policy in that country, branded by several international organizations that violate human rights.
Fascist regimes
In May, when the Spanish far-right party Vox organized an international meeting in Madrid in which Meloni and the Argentine Javier Milei participated, President Sánchez and ministers called the meeting a right-wing international and they singled them out for being the defenders of fascist regimes.
However, once Meloni assumed power in Italy, Sánchez held meetings with her and even sat down to negotiate the names of the current European government, with which Meloni agreed to support the former Spanish minister and today vice president of the CE, Teresa Ribera, in exchange for Spanish and European socialism giving their support to the councilors proposed by the Italian leader, who thus managed to get the extreme right forces to enter the community Executive for the first time.
The decorations were awarded before the state visit that the kings of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia, will make next Tuesday, which seeks to further strengthen bilateral relations.