Antonio López-Istúriz: "The Socialists in the European Parliament constantly vote in favour of Russia and China"

Antonio López-Istúriz, Member of the European Parliament for the Partido Popular, appeared on Capital Radio's Atalayar programme to discuss various important Spanish and international current affairs issues, with relevant references to the European Union's Community policy, such as the reconstruction funds allocated in Europe, and the criticised role of the Spanish socialist government on the international stage. 

On the Brahim Ghali affair, the latest issue to come to light is the statement made before the judge by the Air Force general in Zaragoza, confirming that the Ministry of Defence was bypassed by the Foreign Ministry so that he would not be asked for his passport.

This is yet another example of how a Venezuelan Vice-President walked around here at two o'clock in the morning handing out congratulations at Barajas airport and nothing happens here. We have accepted a man who is accused of genocide believing that we are fools and we are not going to find out. Then we complain that we have pro-independence people running around Europe, but here we accept a man accused of genocide. Honestly, this belief that everyone north of the Pyrenees is a fool has to stop. This government is constantly operating with European structures, the rise in electricity prices is the fault of the European Union, the rise in motorway tariffs is also the fault of the European Union and then the European Commission has to come out and say that there is nothing to this, that these are decisions of the Spanish government. And on and on it goes, it is incredible, it is the first time that a Spanish Government and a Prime Minister or his ministers have accused Brussels of things that are not true. Not even Zapatero did that at his worst moment. 

What's more, we then go with an open hand to ask. Spain is the second country to receive the second largest amount of reconstruction funds, which, by the way, have not yet arrived. Where do we stand with the reconstruction funds? 

Before, we had that vice-president of the government called Pablo Iglesias, who has now disappeared, who spent the whole day accusing the European Union of everything while they were preparing the recovery packages last summer. Well, now the 9 billion that have been agreed in this first instalment are coming, but the next ones are going to be given in December. The next package will be conditional on a study of how the funds are being distributed and whether they are really being used for the purposes that the European Commission has requested. On the other hand, I would like to make it very clear that the real success of a country is not receiving these funds. The real success is not having to receive funds; enough of this culture of subsidies and fresh money. Germany does not need these funds. That's how investors run to Germany, they run to countries that don't need funds because that's where the security is.

And they are made to believe that they are going to be for nothing in return, because Brussels is going to be very vigilant about how they are applied and distributed. They have to make very specific budgets for the budgets that include them.

Of course, the President of the Government has already felt this in his own flesh. When he tried to manipulate the appointments to the General Council of the Judiciary, Brussels reminded them of respect for the rule of law. Then the European Commission, specifically the Commissioner for Justice, came out to say that the reform of the General Council of the Judiciary goes against the rule of law. You cannot manipulate the judiciary in such a blatant way.

It was very similar to what happened in Poland...

Of course. In short, a rule of law that the Government itself calls into question by voting in favour of the European Socialist Group, in the Council of Europe, a report by a pro-Russian Latvian socialist member of parliament who criticises the Spanish justice system, who supports pardons and criticises the Spanish judicial system, and who supports it. This is unheard of, unheard of in any European country. It is worth remembering that at the moment the top European socialist leader is Sánchez, because that's all there is. There is António Costa in Portugal, who, well, is more liberal than anyone else. The spiritual reserve of European socialism at the moment is Spain. 

Now in Spain there are two categories of Spaniards: those who support pardons and those who do not, not only Spaniards, but also citizens of the world. So today there is a classification: Spaniards or good citizens, those who support pardons, and vice versa. 

I do not know what France will think of this future referendum, or how they will want to deceive us. On this issue, what will France, which has just published a law restricting the use of regional languages in schools and which, for example, has a very tight grip on the issue in Brittany and Corsica, think? What will Belgium think? What will Italy think about the issue of northern Italy? What will Romania think about the issue of Transylvania? You think that they are going to support these delusions that the Spanish Government is having, I tell you they are not. And they are watching this whole issue very carefully.

And above all, equality between Spaniards. If someone has a problem with the Treasury, for example, the Treasury should be neither vindictive nor revanchist and apply the same method of concord and forgive the debt or not put them in prison. Then anyone can embezzle a lot of money following the same theories of concord.

Here, whoever violates the constitution, whoever violates the constitutional order of a country has perks and pardons, is a bad example. In the end, what I would like to sum up for everyone is that these issues give an image of weakness and it is catastrophic for those of us who work abroad: diplomats, politicians, civil servants, etc. It is catastrophic. I must remind you that Spain has spent years with the issue of the Basque Country and then with that of Catalonia, investing a great deal of effort in foreign affairs, which has meant that the Spanish foreign sector is not devoting itself to supporting companies or many other issues. Our current expenditure of energy on foreign affairs is terrible compared to other countries that control these issues well. Moreover, we Spaniards seem to like to clean up our dirty laundry abroad. In other countries, however, all this does not happen and their foreign sector does what it has to do, which is logically to help their citizens and companies to work as much as possible. There is the recent case, another of Mr Sánchez's and his foreign minister's witticisms, of being the only support for Erdogan's government; we are the only European country that has given this support to Erdogan's regime. Thanks to this, Greece, which has had a huge conflict with Turkey, has cancelled the construction of Navantia frigates and this is going to cost Spain millions and millions of jobs. You can sense and smell weakness and abroad there is often a confused image of people, believing that foreign policy is white glove, that it is not like national or local politics, far from it, there are many wolves on the loose, of course. People who don't want us, such as Russia or China, because they don't like our democratic system, that of Spain and that of the European Union. And within the European Union, competition between countries is also fierce, and when they detect weakness, it is a great joy. When Mr Zapatero said he wanted to return to the heart of Europe, he was received with great joy because they thought "you're going to find out, we're going to take your livers out". 

At the first Fisheries meeting, I remember that they took almost 3.8 billion euros from us. The new Fisheries Minister, who had taken office two days before, instead of listening to the team that had been negotiating - the previous team of the People's Government - and following in their footsteps, went with her I-know-it-all theories and gave us a 3.8 billion euro clawback.

Yes, of course. Or the exit from Iraq, all those images, then we believe that Joe Biden doesn't look at you. It has been studied, because Mr. Biden may be a democrat, he may be a comrade of the socialist international, but the interests of the United States come first. And history shows us, unfortunately, that when there is a socialist government, except perhaps during the period of Felipe González, it is clear that relations with the United States cannot be cooled. And Mr Joe Biden, who was Vice-President with Obama, knows this perfectly well. It was Mr Zapatero's turn and he knew he could not be trusted. These things then remain and Joe Biden, who is quite old, has an enormous memory and remembers the constant affronts that these socialist governments have made to the United States, and in the end the problems are picked up.

There is a recent controversy, as you know, with the US Administration. When the extradition of Hugo Carvajal, known as "El Pollo", the former head of Venezuelan military intelligence, had already been approved, that night he disappeared from Madrid. And the United States doesn't take kindly to that kind of thing.

I totally agree. The Venezuelan issue is crucial for the United States and the drift of Sánchez, of Borrell in Brussels, as the high representative of the European Union's foreign policy. In short, he is simply a transmission belt for the imagination of Pedro Sánchez and company, and the United States is taking it very badly. The priority in the United States at the moment is Venezuela, because it is the focus of tension in the entire Latin American basin. And of course, it could spread with some people like this enlightened person who has been elected in Peru, because the campaign was to listen to her, and some others who are out there. Of course, the United States is very concerned. 

Behind the Bolivarian axis, which is spreading through Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, what President Ortega is doing is unacceptable. Bolivia had left, but has returned to that axis, they are trying to get Peru, Ecuador has fortunately left, but they are destabilising countries like Colombia, Chile; behind them are Russia, Iran and also a little bit of China. In this Bolivarian offensive to change the whole of Latin America. And Spain's interests there are very serious.

Anything that destabilises democracies is a source of inspiration for them. Whoever does it, welcome, they will have all the support, logically, because they don't like us, but the socialists in the European Parliament constantly vote in favour of Russia and China. And it is simply that they think they are still living off Marxism. I must remind you that Putin's regime at the moment is a regime of one man who is surrounded by a series of oligarchs who support him and it is all a concentration of power, which has nothing to do with communism or Marxism, that no longer exists. And then China is a communist party with an iron social and political hand, but with a market economy that dries up the theory of market economy, it's mind-boggling. And here everyone still thinks they are working for a socialist future. Well, I have news for you, the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Many of us lived through what happened in Eastern Europe a few years ago. Where do you think all the problems we are going through with some countries like Hungary, Poland and so on come from? They come from that time because they are countries in which, generationally, great social changes have yet to take place and they have not yet been experienced and that is why what is happening is happening. The Polish government of Kaczynski is nothing more than all the former communists reconverted and now they are far-right nationalists, and they are nothing more than part of the nomenclature of the past. And this is happening in many countries in Europe. This is obviously a matter of concern to all of us. 

Europe, together with the United States, must confront what is now the great threat, which is cyber-attacks. For example, a few days ago, they hacked the American company that distributed petrol throughout the south, which left a large part of the United States without petrol, creating a complicated situation. China is constantly carrying out cyber-attacks, as is the Russian government. So in that sense there is some concern right now. The European Union, at the last NATO summit, dealt with it. Is there an awareness of the seriousness of these cyber threats? 

Well, of course you have it. Without going any further, tomorrow I think it will be adopted because I think I have a sufficient majority, including the abstention of the Greens - historically the first time they have abstained - my report is being put to the vote in the plenary of the European Parliament on NATO relations in the European Union. The main part of this report deals precisely with new threats and the issue of cybercrime. Cyber-attacks are at the forefront of the report, but it has obtained a majority consensus among the political forces in the European Parliament. I believe that tomorrow the Parliament will be very much in favour of this thesis. There is enormous concern throughout Europe, Spain suffered its first attack on the public administration a few months ago, and the Russian interference in the Catalonia issue is well known to all. We saw images on Russian television of supposedly Spanish tank brigades amassing on the border with Catalonia. It's like the series 'The Blacklist', amassing on the border to subjugate the poor Catalans. All this, make no mistake, is not to support any faction, they are simply seeking to destabilise democracies. Joe Biden's appeal that we are now dealing with the survival of democracy. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, we all thought we had finally triumphed and we have come face to face with reality. The world is seeing brutal tectonic shifts due to new technologies. We are facing a new revolution that in the future will be called the Industrial Revolution. In short, we are now facing a social, political and economic upheaval as we adapt to a new world.